CROSSING THE MARGIN:

MINORITIES AND MARGINALITY IN THE DRAMA

OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the

University of Leicester

by
Halla Diyab

Department of English

Under the Supervision of Professor Martin Halliwell January 2008

Crossing the Margin:

Williams Minorities and Marginality in the Drama of Tennessee Halla Diyab

Abstract

The thesis examines the development of the concept of minority in the plays of TennesseeWilliams, as it transforms from minority as the identity of a certain group in his early plays, into an experienceof marginality. In The GlassMenagerie(1945), A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947) and Suddenly Last Summer (1958) Williams' charactersexperience self-confinement within the body, which categorisesthem as identifiable minorities. Three versions of The Night of the Iguan will be pivotal in this thesis; the 1961 three-act version in finds 'interior fizuana the the space' of characters' confinement conflict with of 'the exterior space'. In Williams' later plays, including Kingdom of Earth (1968), In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969) and Small Craft Warnings (1972), the concept of marginality becomesmore abstract,concerningthe characters'interaction with one liberation. The thesis definesthis spaceas 'the circle of to of another createa space 'one-ness' which is formed between two marginalized characters who come together in order to be liberated from their own confinement. Over the course of theseplays Williams widens this dramatic circle to operateon a collective level of unity that includes two or more characters. The thesis ends with a discussion of Vieux Carr6 (1977), where Williams succeedsin dramatising the unity of these characterswith the image of the loving God, and offering a return to the self as the source of salvation and liberation. By reading Williams' dramatic texts in relation to his use of stagecraft, including the visual and aural images, stage directions and the characters' movementson the stage,as well as their spokenwords, the thesis aims to present a new framework for the study of Williams' dramatic work.

2
Contents

Section

Page

Acknowledgments

Introduction Williams' Minorities? Who Are Tennessee

Chapter I Part 1: Tennessee Williams' Early Plays: The Identifiable Minorities Part II: The GlassMenagerie(1944) Part III: A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947) Part IV: SuddenlyLast Summer(1958)

26 27 42 64 87

Chapter 11 Part 1: The Nip-htof the IF, = : Between Fiction and Drama

106 107 III 133

Part II: The Short Story Version of 'The Night of the Iguana' (1948) Part III: The One-Act Version of The Night of the Iguan (1959) Part IV: Spatial Reversalin the Three-Act Version of The Night of the Iguana (1961)

151

Chapter III Williams' Later Plays after The Night of the Iguan Part I: Tennessee

178 179

3
Part II: Kingdom of Earth (1968): The Transition from The Night of the Iguan Williams' Later Plays to Tennessee Part III: In the Bar of a Tojiyo Hotel (1969) Part IV: From the Bar in In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel to Monk's Bar in Small Craft Warnings (1972): The CommunalCircle of Unity 228 193 209

Conclusion Tennessee Williams Beyond Marginality: Vieux Carr6 (1977)

248 249

Bibliography

274

4
Acknowledgments

In memory of my father, Dr. Anis Diyab. For Mum, the beautiful and passionateMouna.Youzbachi. I dedicatethis piece I would like to record my gratitude and thanks to my supervisor, Professor Martin Halliwell, who has dedicated a considerable amount of time, patience, encouragementand effort to help me. I was extremely fortunate in the advice I received from beginning to end of this project. Also, my great gratitude to ProfessorRichard Foulkes, who has been gracious and helpful. Thanks to the Interlibrary loan staff at the University of Leicester, especially Mrs. Lyn Clark and Miss Marilyn Coward. Also the Faculty of Arts at the University of Leicester, for the William Ruddick Scholarship Award which enabled me to carry out researchin The Historic New Orleans Collection, and the University of Leicester for accommodatingme all these years and for awarding me the prize for Best PosterPresentation: Business, Social Sciencesand Arts at the Festival of Postgraduate Researchin 2006.

Williams ResearchCenter am very grateful to the staff at Tennessee in New Orleans, especially Mark Cave for his help. My very special thanks go to

ProfessorKevin Lee, GraduateDean at the University of Leicester, for his

Bray, Professor Robert My to gratitude special encouragementand enthusiasm.

Tennessee invited to the at me speak who was encouraging and supportive,and in April 2007. Williams Festivalin New Orleans

5 Great thanksto lad Ahmad and Najd Al-Abood for their love and
for Bober Saif James Mrs. Colling, Neeta Chohan, Al-Zubai Anne to and support; I have always dependedon the kindness of their support, help and encouragement. Mr. Najdat Anzour and Dr. Hala Sarhan,who taught me how to rise and shine. I heartfully thank Mr. Dion Croom, the Mayor of EthniKcity DevelopmentInitiative for his support, enthusiasm,belief in my talent, and his passionwhich was the light at the end of a dark tunnel.

INTRODUCTION

WHO ARE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'MINORITIES?

in I don't think I have ever beenconscious theme a of writing with

in I has I mind. am always surprisedwhen, after a play opened, read the be is life it is the what could papers what play about ... a play about little You that a simpler, and yet more pretentious? can easily extend and say it is a tragedy of incomprehension.That also meanslife. Or you can say it is a tragedy of Puritanism. That is life in America. Or you can just it is but "problem that the say a play considers say of evil" why not life But the mysterious thing about writing plays about life is that so ...

many people find them so strangeand baffling. That makes you know,

in deep have that satisfaction, with momentsof really succeeded you in it (Tennessee Williams, Without Answers' 'Questions writing about
Woods and Day, pp.25-27). Given the above statement,the first question raised when discussingthe concept of intention in it is his Tennessee Williams' to write about minority work whether was minority, or did he see all his charactersas minorities? Although it is difficult to

know exactlywhatwason Williams' mind, his wordsindicatethat beinga minority

is a 'tragedy of incomprehension' that impedes a certain individual or group from fitting within a social structure. The question of minority is therefore about 'life',

7 which interestedWilliams throughouthis dramatic career.This also gives his It is limiting to think of Williams characters, aspect. aswell ashis plays,a universal as only a 'Southern' or an 'American' dramatist;he is one of a few twentiethcentury playwrights who tried through his drama to push the boundariesof communicating effectivelythroughtheatre.This is achieved partly by settinghis playsawayfrom the political andcommercial centres of America,focusingon the
Deep South and sometimeson unnamed,remote and fictionalised places,exploring marginalized and forgotten charactersas a window into people's minds and hearts. Thinking of thesecharactersas minorities does not conflict with this idea; they are not used by Williams as a means to identify minorities in a scientific way, but rather the charactershelp the playwright to develop this abstract concept onto a broad level of human experience.

Williams always refusedto align himself with certain schoolsof

thought or social movements, in an attempt to reach beyond the identity politics that becamepopular in the United Statesof America in the mid-1960s. In terms of minority, in all his drama post-World War 11,Williams goesbeyond issuesof race and gender to examine the universal scopeof the concept. When normalized ideas of personaland social identity were dominant, Williams made problematic the idea of the 'centre' by centralising what is usually marginalized. So, with his early plays of the 1940sand 1950s- The GlassMenagerie(1945), Camino Real (1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) - he offers an alternative to the kind of individualism in promoted post-war America with its emphasis on self-reliance and economic

striving. In his later plays - In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969), Small Craft WamLn?, s (1972), Out Cjy (1973),Vieux Caff6 (1979) and HouseNot Meantto
Stand (1982) - he shifts his concern from the individual to broader notions of

8
identity, to explore the notion of the relationship betweenthe self and community. Whilc it is possiblc to map the shift in Amcrican social lifc from 'individualism' in the late 1940sand 1950sto concernswith 'community' in the 1960s,it appearsthat for Williams it is dramatic experimentation,rather than social change,that was the driving force behind his changingportrayal of minority. Williams continued to make referenceto the historical moment (such as the referencesto World War II in The Nijzht of the lauan 1961),particularly as

it impacts on the representation of minority questions. However, it is not the concern of this study to provide a sociological accountof minorities from the mid1940sto the end of the 1970s,nor to analysethe different theoretical perspectives on the concept of minority that shapedthe American mainstream,such as the Civil Rights movement or gay liberation movement. Rather the focus is how the concept developed within Williams' dramatic work. Nevertheless, the discussion will convey how Williams' charactersrespondedto changing socio-cultural.pressures, as will be evident in the following chapters.This will serve to demonstratehow

from Williams' dramatic the imageof minority enforces perspective a strongimage

of identity, which is specifically American while also universal. The thesis analyses a number of Williams' dramatic texts that deal with the concept of minority in different ways. The importance of this concept lies in its development through three dramatic phasesof Williams' career, from the mid-1940s until the end of the 1970s.Importantly, his theatricality and stagecraft are used to shift this concept from a simple philosophical or sociological meaning to one expressing real human experiences.In relation to Williams' later plays, minority questionswill be discussedless in terms of an identifiable minority group and more explicitly in terms of the experienceof marginality itself. The first idea

9 here refers to characters that are bodily markedand confinedwithin their self,
serving to categorisethem as a minority. Although theseidentities can be relatedto the typical notion of minority in America in the late 1940sand 1950s,when white, suburbanand middle-class identity was dominant, the primary interest lies in the way that Williams frames issues of self-confinement and freedom. This will be discussedin the first part of the thesis, which focuseson Williams' early plays up to the end of the 1950s. In contrast,in the plays from 1965until his death in 1982, the concept of minority is developedin more metaphoricalways. Williams startsto explore the experience of marginality in all its complexity in relation to a small group of charactersalienated from their social world and suffering from varying degreesof anxiety. Here the concept of minority has become more abstract, relating to how

interactwith one anotherto createtheir own spaceof liberation;this characters The useof the word 'circle' placewill be referredto as 'the circle of 'one-ness'. doesnot refer to the 'centre' in a conventional but signifiesthe circularityof sense,
the minority experiencein these plays, where charactersproject their anxiety onto each other and have no choice but to go on within this endlesscircle of anxiety. Particularly in Williams' later plays, they are often able to find liberation from within an experience of entrapment. This idea is central to the third part of the

thesis.
William's 1961 The Night of the Iguan will be looked at as a tuming point and a pivotal text in Williams' development of the minority issues,in terms of the transitional structure by which it is framed. Accordingly, the middle part of

the thesisis dedicated to a close study of this play, with its threedevelopmental
drafts from short story to full-length play. Here in Iguan more so than any of his ,

10

earlier plays, the representationof minority operateson an interrelation betweenthe characterizationand the way the play is constructedspatially. ReadingWilliams' dramatic texts in relation to the developmentof the concept of minority will be basedon a decoding of Williams' use of theatricality and stagecraft. This will include reading the visual and aural images, stage directions and the characters' body language, as well as their spoken words. A significant emphasiswill be given to decoding the characters'physical movements on the stageas implied by the stagedirections in the plays. Here the main concern will be the vertical and horizontal movements of the characterson the stage, in order to read their confinement and marginality in relation to the physical spaceof the stage itself. It is important to go beyond the printed text to read the stagecraft involved, especially as Williams emphasises stageperformance,body languageand theatrical techniquesin his drama. Understandinghis plays in terms of performance requires more than simply examining the stage design, architecture,acousticsand lighting: it also has to deal with Williams' creativeuse of theatrical space. The central argumentof this thesis is that Williams' use of the stageis vital for understandingthe developmentof the concept of minority in his dramatic work. This is mainly becauseWilliams moves away from the 'plastic theatre' and realism of his early plays to use certain visual techniquesin Iguana that extemalise and project the confinement of the charactersonto the stageitself In his later plays, the minority question starts to operateon characterizationin relation to the way the is set up spatially. To realise this, Williams uses dramatic forms which play develop silence as a way of defeating linguistic entrapmentand emphasise the body as the focus of the experienceof marginality. By using the stageto visualise this

11

experience,Williams challengesthe confines of theatrical spaceto presentwhat is marginalized in life. Little has been written on this subject as the question of minority is rarely discussedas the focal point of Williams' drama. Thus, as a conceptual framework for the thesis, this introduction will explore this concept as it is discussedin Williams' scholarshipand as it is addressed by Williams himself in his memoirs and letters, before moving on to examine key examplesof his plays. The originality and significance of this thesis lies in the way the minority question is explored as a developing conceptin Williams' drama, helping to bring together and draw out other themes in his work. Although the minority question is tackled in a variety of ways throughout Williams' career, I will argue that these different minority groups still have something in common. As Williams developed as a

dramatist he shiftedhis understanding of minority asan identityof a certaingroup to oneof an experience of characters of marginality.To parallelthis development, in Williams' early plays to the my thesis shifts its focus from characterization in relationto the space actionof characters on stage.
No extensive study has been completed on minority groups as a specific category in Williams' work. In some research,'minority', though the word itself is not used, is alluded to within a racial, regional or social context. The critic Darryl Erwin Haley, for example, refers to something similar in his on-line published dissertation 'Certain Moral Values: A Rhetoric of Outcasts in the Plays of Tennessee Williams' (1999). Haley's main concern is the poetic aspect of Williams' plays; he views Williams' characters as outcasts within his dramatic poetics and argues that 'Williams' plays outline a struggle between the moral values of non-conformists, who are outcasts because they cannot, or will not,

12

that conformto the valuesof the dominant culture;andconformists, who represent

culture' (preface). For Haley theseoutcasts'do not suffer becauseof the actions or impact but destructive because that them the of circumstances make outcasts of conventional morality upon them' (preface). He distinguishesbetween three types of outcasts:religious, sexual, and fugitive. Examining Williams' characterswithin this struggle with the conventional finds its echo in Patricia Grierson's 'An Interview with Margaret Walker Alexander on Tennessee Williams' (1995). Walker perceivesthat most of Williams' charactersare not 'accepted in the strict Victorian senseof the word. As far as casteand race are concerned He liked all ... is (Grierson, 588). Both that there the a sorts of people' view p. argumentsshare kind of rejection which Williams' charactersexperience.

However,thereis an extensive body of research on Williams' work

that focusessolely on the prominence of characterization,theme and setting of his work. Although the word 'minority' is not used in referring to Williams' characters, Tom instance, 'confinement' 'fugitive' For such words as and are employed. Wingfield is seen by Joseph K. Davis in 'Landscapes of the Dislocated Mind' (2002) as one of Williams' fugitives: a 'modem individual who is artistic in impulse and temperament' (Tharpe, 1977, p. 195), while Louise Blackwell depicts

in 'Tennessee Sebastian Williams and the Predicament of Women' as a 'sexual

misfit' (Martin, p. 105). Donald P. Costello in 'TennesseeWilliams' Fugitive Kind' (1977) argues that all Williams' plays, full-length and one-act, 'continue the fugitive image and play variations on it'. So, Blanche of A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947) is seenthe 'consummatefugitive' and Alma in Summer and Smoke (1948) is the fugitive who 'reaches for something beyond earth' (Stanton, p. 110). In

CaminoReal the 'quintessential fugitive in literature,Don Quixote' is viewed as

13 one of a parade of fugitives 'who refuse[s] to face the realities of earth' (Stanton, being by fugitive is into I 11). Catharine Suddenly (195 8) Last Summer p. of a made committed to an asylum (p. 112), while Hannah of Iguan is a fugitive also, as are the other central charactersin I Ruan .

The obvious link here is to the 1959 film The Fugitive Kind, an adaptationof Williams' play OrpheusDescending(1957). Here the word 'fugitive' is an important word for thinking about the attempts of its charactersto escape entrapment.Costello arguesthat in the play 'to surrenderto the evil earth is [man's] major sin; to continue the fugitive flight is what Williams asks' (Stanton, p. 110). This is developedby Costello who quotesWilliams' words about the play in a New York Times article: it is 'about those two kinds of people, those who are of the

that are not answers earth,who acceptthe "prescribed at all" contrasted answers thosewho "continueto ask" the "unanswered questions with his four protagonists,
that haunt the hearts of people" those who are - in a key phraseof the play - "the fugitive kind... (p. I 10). Here to be a fugitive is to be absent from the earth by maintaining a senseof heavenly idealism; Costello's argumentis that the concepts the two of earth and heavendominate Williams' work, but the line which separates is one of 'answered/unansweredquestions'. Although Costello discusses only O[pheus Descending,he comesclosestto the argumentthat this thesis makesabout minority; the charactersin Williams' early plays can be viewed as yearning for heaven in their struggle to maintain their idealised self (including Blanche in Sir-eetcar).In contrast, characters who are content with the earth (like Jim in

Mennerie andStanley in 5treetcar) arenot thosewho arecontent with unanswered

questions,but rather those who are content with their 'self'. This is not to imply that they are the central charactersin the plays, as they still suffer like others in the

14 need for self-affirmation. However, in Williams' later plays a reversal is suggested in the concept of heavenand earth as the chapteron Kingdom of Earth (1968) will convey. Costello concludes his article with the words of Lady Torrance in OrpheusDescending: 'I do not know the answer; I just know corruption ain't the answer' (Orpheus Descending, p.49, in Stanton, p. I 10). Here there is a kind of but in his later plays Williams' charactersdo not give up but surrendersuggested, These actually achievea kind of liberation, as this thesis will go on to demonstrate. later characterscannot be considered fugitives as they achieve the idea of 'onein ness' a new vision of liberation. There is a great deal of generalization in Costello's argument,particularly in his conclusion that 'no happy escapefrom the is earth possible, and so most of the fugitives remain, questioning and lonely; or they find madnessor despair or death' (Stanton, p. 122). Costello's argument falls short at this point, as he does not suggest an outlet or escapefor these fugitive

characters.
Thomas P. Adler also refers to Williams' charactersas 'fugitive kind' in his chapter 'Tennessee Williams in 1940sand 1950s:Artist of the Fugitive Kind' (1994). Adler's argument is based on Battle of Angels (1940) as a play which introduces all of the motifs that becomecentral in Williams' work: a romantic valorisation of the poetic misfit or dispossessed outsider; an almost Manicheanduality in the pattering of imagery and symbology

for breakingfree from the shell of self and responding the necessity
to others (Adler, 1994,p. 132). compassionately

15 does he is based Like othercritics, Adler's argument not see and on one example in is developed in otherplays.The concept developed this concept of minority not Adler's criticism,but rathernotedasa characteristic of oneplay. C. W. E. Bigsby's 'EnteringThe GlassMenagerie' (1997)is the bestexample of this focuson a single play, specificallyCaminoReal. Bigsby is one of the few critics to use the term 6marginal'to refer to Williams' characters. He thinks that the play stagesthe 'dispossessed who are never and the marginalwholly throughfictional characters to thetangibleworld of torturedhumanity, actingout their romantic allowedaccess but in fictive is time the their against scenarios entirely world which protection p.41). In this way, which also definesthe limits of their possibility' (Roudand, Bigsby views fiction as a 'consolation'and 'imprisonment'(p.41). Although the
in is different 'imprisonment' it be looked to this thesis, way, a word crucial at will into developed from the 'imprisonment' the the self and read as a concept of 'imprisonment' within the physical space or stage of the play. This is explicit in Iguan (discussedin Chapter Two), and will be also developed in the reading of Williams' later plays (in ChapterThree). William Kleb also reads Williams in terms of marginality in 'Marginalia: Streetcar, Williams and Foucault' (1993), as a 'kind of imaginative prefiguration of [Michel] Foucault's theory'. He claims that: Williams' plays construct landscape the same shifting ontological ... mapped out by Foucault; situated at the margin where death, madness, and sexuality intersect and interact, they focus, as does Foucault in his most important texts, on the struggle to control (through the power of knowledge and the manipulation of 'truth') a definition of the Sameand Other (Kolin, 1993,p.27).

16 Kleb views Williams' theatre as 'inviting a psychoanalytic response', and gives Streetcaras an example where 'although Stanley and Stella subjectify Blanche as a disorder, linking the audience, manageablesign sexual abnormalcy and mental focus relieved, can now simply and safely on the psychosexual pathology of (p. 41). Blanche DuBois and her creator theatre-like to the asylum' condemned ... In short, Kleb finds Williams using his drama as a form of self-therapy; here it is Bigsby has Williams who is viewed as entrappedwithin himself, not his characters. the same view in resorting to Williams' life, arguing the playwright turned to for in it is his find 'only that writing as work an artist can reality and satisfaction, the actual world is less intensethan the world of his invention and consequentlyhis life does not seem very substantial' (Roudand, p.32). However, while these ...

readings are helpful, these critics do not elaborate on Williams' entrapment to it his to relate characters.

This view links to Williams dealingwith many taboosin his drama. Ted Kalem in 'The Angle of the Odd' (1962)argues that manyAmericans regard Williams as an 'erotomaniac', for whom the mildest epithets are 'sick' and 'decadent'(Kalem,p.53).He is alsodescribed as:
the masterof the mood. Sometimesit is hot, oppressive,simmering with catastrophe(Streetcar, Cat) at other times it is sad autumnal, elegiac (Menagerie,Iguana ) to achieve it, he usesthe f ull orchestraof theatrical instruments: setting, lighting, music, plus the one impalpable, indispensablegift, the genius for making an audience forget that any other world exists exceptthat one onstage(Kalem, p.53).

17 Some critics see Williams' his from dull, dark originating and vision as

has This homosexuality. in Williams' is to subconscious which always read relation led to suggestionsof a crisis within American culture revolving around fear and Queers Cowboys in Communities, homosexuality. David Savran and paranoia of (1992) is one of the critics who relate the subconscious to the structureof Williams' plays: dramatising fragmentary a each episode, of short and composites (the double one spectacle, complex and elusive moment ... comprisesa "heterosexual") occurring on a bright screen while the other (the "homosexual", the more vibrant and productive of the two) takes place in the gloomy, subtextual private galleries, onto which the glare from the cowboy pictures and other sensationaland sentimentalnarratives is

(Savran, 78). p. reflected

According to Savran's view there is a kind of 'binarism' between 'the political and for he 'the the crucial the sexual' as well as considers public and private' which ' (p. 6normativeconstructionsof genderduring the 1940sand 1950s' 80).

Williams asa member by Savran This binarismsuggested of classifies

fit didn't 'Williams introduction in (2006): Waters' Memoirs John to a minority into his own minority' (Waters, p.x). The phrase 'own minority' here refers to Williams' 'type' of homosexual, one who did not realise he was gay as he never seemed'gayly-correct', and his 'sexual ambiguity and confusion were always made appealingand exciting in his work' (p.x). Waters basesthis view on Williams' own

of the homosexualrights movement in the early 1950s' where the texts of the emerging gay rights movement and the plays of 1940s and 1950sthat were considered sympathetic to 'problem of homosexuality, were written in the language of remorse' (Savran,p.87).

1Here the reference is to the 'nonmilitancy

18 his lives if 'My doesn't know 'even I type the of sex words: who am' and characters weren't always healthy, they certainly seemed hearty' (p.x). Unlike Waters who proceedsno further, Savran explores the developmentof Williams in the later stagesof his career when he redefines 'the male homosexual subject, by conceiving of him less as a positivity than a kind of absent(offstage) presence(like the idea of God) - like Skipper, or Jack Straw and Peter Ochello' (Savran, p. 109). So for Savran,by 1955 Williams was able to: protect this homosexualsubjectfrom the "torrent of lies and distortione' that overwhelms him on the commercial stage only by displacing him, or not by allowing him to speak since the only language he was permitted to speakwas the very one that ensured [Williams'] abjection

andhis marginalisation

2 110). P. (Savran,

However, Savran falls again into the sarne trap as Waters with his view of Williams' work as a projection of this 'abjection' of his homosexual self. Allean Hale, one of the leading scholarson Williams, in 'Two on a Streetcar'(1989), has a

differentview of this: 'when [Williams] discovered "crabe' that he had contracted

from a sexual partner, he typically converted his shame into a play, using both roachesand body lice in The Lady of Larkspur Lotion' (Hale, p.35). Meanwhile, in TennesseeWilliams in Provincetown (2007), Kaplan suggeststhat Williams kept 'his sexual life separate from the writing he intended to have published or performed. This reinforced his senseof himself as someonewho maintained the advantagesof outsider status, even as he worked to entertain and be acceptedin mainstream society' (Kaplan, p.85). For Kaplan, this 'outsider status' works for
2 Savran thinks that by 'appropriating the language of convention (and subtly turning it against itselo, and by absentingthe homosexual subject (and drawing attention to his absence)Williams is allowed not only to speak,but virtually to reign over the commercial theatreof the 1940sand 1950s' (Savran,p. I 10).

19 Williams as a 'homosexual and as an artist' (p.86); according to Kaplan's his is Williams image to own private there reflect uses argument, a public which his homosexuality it deal he does find As to with a problem self-image. a writer not through his work, which classifies him as a personal writer, a fact which Williams (1970): in The Americans 'I'm very personal as a writer'; David Frost's admits 'yes. I don't meanto be, I just am. Unavoidably' (Frost, p.35). In spite of this admission, however, in Albert J. Devlin's Williams (1986) it is claimed that Williams 'never Conversationswith Tennessee it was never a found it necessaryto deal with [his homosexuality in his work] ... life'. in intimate, [his], [his] private except of preoccupation He 'thought

homosexualwriters were in the minority of writers. Nobody's yet made a correct (Devlin, in America' homosexuals the the actual number of population of censusof Intimate in An is linked Williams: Dotson Rader's Tennessee 344). This to view p. Memoir (1985), who mentions the same word 'minority' in relation to Williams himself (Rader,p.271). This perspective leads to the identification of a duality within Williams' characters which classifies them as minorities. For instance, in Ted Kalem's 'The Angle of the Odd', a profile of TennesseeWilliams, the term Gminority' is absent but the article tackles related concepts.To illustrate further, Williams' charactersare viewed on a 'journey over a symbolic landscapeamid the love dualities Devil, human duel is between God The the strife-torn of and nature. and death,the flesh and the spirit, innocenceand corruption, light and darkness,the eternal Cain and the eternal Abel' (Kalem, p.60). Due to these oppositions, Williams 'belongs with this triumvirate of disquietude in the minority tradition of in Maggie U. S. Letters' in DuBois (p. 'Blanche 60). Diana Cafagna and naysaying

20 the Cat: Illusion and Reality in TennesseeWilliams' (1997) views Williams as caught within what Hugh Holman has called 'a union of opposites,a condition of instability, a paradox' (Hugh Holman as quoted by Peggy W. Prenshaw, 'The ParadoxicalSouthernWorld of Tennessee Williams' (1977), p.5, in Martin, p.119). Developing the view that Williams' theatre was a way of fulfilling his own desires,David Mathew's argumentis relevant in his dissertation'The Ritual of Self-Assassination in the Drama of TennesseeWilliams' (1974). For Mathew, Williams' charactersare 'dreamers' who 'find solace in both the dreams which come from drugs,and those dreams that have no narcotic source'. The common denominator in each of these charactersis that their dreams are an 'alternative to reality' (Mathew, p.285). So in Menageriethe three charactersare seenas a cast of

dreamers; drinks to 'immerseherselfin the dream Blanchein Streetcar meanwhile Della in The RoseTattoo(1952)hides which hasbecome reality to her'; Serafina herself 'from the truth abouther late husband dreamsof their by her passionate sexualactivities'; and Brick in Cat withdrawsfrom reality via alcohol(Mathew, p.287). Maher Ben Moussain 'The Re-Inventionof the Self. Performativityand Liberation in Selected Plays by Tennessee Williams' (2001) refers to Williams' characters as 'marginals'. For instance,Blanche is one such characterwho is 'doomedto a tragic endbecause sheis not ableto leavethe marginandlive again
according to the norms of the society' (Moussa, p.43). He relates this to the 'arbitrariness of the social conventionsthat judge people by their appearance',and Blanche is seena 'victim of deviation from what we label normal' (Moussa,p.43). Moussarelatesthe 'normal' to societalexpectationsand 'public image'.

Savran argues that 'desire [in Williams' work] is provoked by differences in race,ethnicity, socialclass,and age' (Savran, that p.125).He states

21 'Williams ensuresthe palatability of these desires for a culture ill at easewith the blurring of the lines of demarcation between races and social classes' (Savran, face dilemma Williams' 125). However, falters this argument characters as the p. does not lay within this 'demarcation', but rather in their struggle to project this it. desire out of the self onto the exterior spacewhich suppresses and condemns This will be highlighted later in this thesis in the discussionof Iguan .

Like Savran, Adler argues that Williams denies any 'acquaintance designations himself dialectics' 'attaches the to political social and with and Humanitarian and Revolutionary' (Adler, 1995, p.649). Adler refers to The Red Devil Batte1y (1988) as a play which castigates'several social wrongs: the racial insularity'. However, bigotry [and] this against ethnic groups class superiority and is related to his view of the play as an explicit foray into socio-political drama (Adler, p.650). Abha Singh in Contemporga American Drama (1998) arguesthat 'Williams is not as concernedwith erosion of moral, social or spiritual values as he is with psychological disjunction and fragmentation' (p.65). It is worth mentioning at this point that it is not possible to consider Williams as a playwright of minorities without questioning whether he contextualisesthem within a specific culture. Williams is viewed by somecritics as being unlike contemporariessuch as Arthur Miller in his exploration of 'the social law' (Popkin as quoted in Jan-orn, p.54). Chalermsrie Jan-om in 'The

Characterizationof Women in Tennessee Williams' Work' (1979) arguesthat this is view unfair, as Williams 'is not interestedin the social law but the moral society

22 demoralized being happily live and and universe where a person can without 3 (p. 54). dehumanized',exploring 'universal' rather than 'social' problems Williams held in The Fred W. Todd Tennessee As the correspondence Collection in The Historic New Orleans Collection confirms, Williams uses the term 'minority' not to refer to his own characters,but rather in a general context. For example, in a letter to Paul Bigelow in 1943, Williams usesthe word minority in relation to the violence between 'service-men and zoot-suiterswhere the warfare have is but A. L. the nearly all queens ... on other minorities not yet organized, "gone underground" anticipating its out-break' (Devlin and Tischler, 2000, p.458: felt 'I he In 1956, Harold Clurman Whitehead, Robert to writes my emphasis). and sort of isolated, as if I stood in one comer and you two in another. This sort of situation predicates the possibility of a play-production full of contention and dissention and so forth with the author an embattled minority faced by a pair who see eye to eye but not as clearly as he naturally seesit' (p.639). Haley's theory of 'outcasts' (discussed earlier in this chapter) reflects Williams' perceptions of in in Mexico his letter from Joseph Acapulco, Hazan to minority as expressed September1940:

the people here [he refers to the people at Acapulco in Mexico] are of two classes,those who are waiting for something to happen or those who believe that everything has happened already. That is the Americans and other outsiders. Their life is lying about the beaches usually in a hypnosis induced by strong drink and hot sunlight and lack of any exertion (Devlin and Tischler, 2000, p.283).
3 John Gassnerargues that 'Williams is different from his different his because of contemporaries background' which differs in its insularity from that of the 'urban playwrights such as [Clifford] Odets and Arthur Miller, who were attuned to sociological analysis and regardedpersonalproblems in the light of social conditioning and economic conflict' (Gassneras quoted in Jan-om, pp.54-55).

23 However, although Williams usesthe term 'outsider' in this context only, he does not develop it in relation to his dramatic characters. Thus it is difficult to he never usesthe term to contextualiseWilliams' own conceptof minority, because refer to his work. This thesis will offer an original reading of this concept by moving away from a biographical approachto Williams in order to focus on his stagecraft. Nevertheless, certain autobiographical elements Will feature in the discussion in relation to Williams' interest in the father figure. On an autobiographicallevel, this can be read to stem from Williams' constantattempt to regain his own father's trust which he could not achieve in real life. The theme of the father f igure is given priority in the dramatic works of concern in the thesis, where it plays a significant role in the dynamics and development of the minority question. This will be analysed in relation to the development of the idea of the father figure from a personified image of God into a more abstractimage of Him. With his early plays, the image of God follows the pattern of the personified image. There is an image of the absent Godlike father who abandonsthese charactersand contributes to their self-entrapment,such as the personified image of the Godlike father figure of Mr. Wingfield in Menagerie. While in his early plays this is focused on a specific character,in his later plays this concept is increasingly developed into an abstract image.

Paul Rosefeldt in The Absent Father in Modem Drama (1995) argues that the 'father is an imposing figure in many of Williams' plays from Big Daddy to God the Father in Iguan ', and that the overpowering figure of the father in Williams' works can best be accountedfor by Williams' 'early impressionsof his own father' (Rosefeldt, p.26). Williams' letters and memoirs suggestthat Williams

24

hada contradictory but frightening his father,who was'the unseen attitudetowards in his childhood'(p.24). Williams himself recounts that: 'often the voice presence it sounded like thunder. He was a big of my father ... was harshand sometimes You wantedto shrinkfrom it' (Williams as man ... andit wasnot a benignbigness. This may explainWilliams' constant quotedin Rosefeldt, use p.40: my emphasis). image the the imageof of of thunderandlighteningin his work, which symbolises God as the sourceof light that can liberateWilliams' early confinedcharacters. With the failure of his characters to achieve this light, Williams startsto question this idea. Last Summerconstitutesa point of departure, where the personified imageof God is turnedinto the abstract beginto God of Wrath,andthe characters
project their own faults and errors onto this image. This is developedlater in Iguan in the form of Shannon's 'senile delinquent' God who 'brutally punishes all He created for his own faults in construction' (Iguana, p.52). I will argue that in his later plays Williams moves beyond the experience of marginality by dramatising the 'one-ness' with God as the sourceof his characters'salvation and liberation.

The transitionin the way Williams views his God is reflectedin the in their relation to God. Theological way in which he portrays his characters in parallel to the development questionsare developed of the minority concept through Williams' dramaticcareer.This needsto be distinguished from formal theology.For instance, religionthough,asWilliams did not hold to institutionalised to 'RomanCatholicism'by David Frost in 'Will whenaskedabouthis conversion God Talk Back to a Playwright', Williams defines God as the 'Whoever is Includingus'. Thereis a sense responsiblefor the universe. of relying on this God to whom Williams resortsat 'odd momentsof compassion' (Frost,pp.33-34:my

25 father. To God-like by is dominated is imply this This the to that centre emphasis) .4 illustrate further, using the term 'minority' demandsthe existenceof certain norms is However, by there the an absence those that are confirmed centre. who represent *represent in the the centre Williams' plays. majority who can of For example, we cannot consider Jim O'Conner in Menagerie, or Stanley in Streetcarin this way; they fight for the centre as they would fight for territory. Williams' plays take the form of a struggle betweenthose characterswho in is do There category no centralized or majority not. can survive and those who his plays, but we cannot deny the existence of a certain dominant presencethat keeps pushing these minority groups to the margin and reinforcing social norms, is idea This in the the more explicit minority groups. subordinationof which results in his later plays where all his charactersare marginalized. In this sense,Williams' definitive the do the centre or a of occupier answers about not provide plays definite image of the majority; the centre is always left empty at the end of the play. Streetcarendsas Stanley 'stands at the foot of the steps' (atreetcar,p.226) with the in Williams' is fact The that this centre not staged centre remaining unoccupied. work is related to the absentGodlike father image, as this thesis will explore. To conclude this introduction, the thesis exemplifies an original and It drama. in to Williams' to the aims approach concept of minority perceptive demonstratethat Williams, by the end of his dramatic career, was successful in creating a type of dramatic characterready to achieveliberation.

4 So before the play opening Williams 'will (pp-33down kneel into and pray' and go a room alone 34). He believes that the importance lies not with 'where' to communicate with God, as he can 'kneel down by the bathtub', but rather with the act of communicating(Frost, 1970,p.33).

26
CHAPTERI

Poster designed by the author

using shots from Tennessee Williams'

early

plays to visualise the idea of identifiable minorities (Postgraduate Festival at the University of Leicester, 2007).

27 CHAPTER 1, PART I

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'

EARLY PLAYS: THE IDENTIFIABLE MINORITIES

We're all of us locked up tight inside our own bodies. Sentenced- you might say - to solitary confinement inside our own skins (Tennessee Williams, Where I live: SelectedEssgysby Tennessee Williams, Woods and Day, p.76). Williams' words here invoke the concept of self-confinementwithin the Tennessee body which categoriseshis early charactersas identifiable minorities, spanninghis plays from the 1940sto the early 1960s.For thesecharacters,the body is identified with what is considereda physical flaw, which marks it as peculiar and different to others. In this chapter, I will analysethe entrappedself in three of Williams' early plays and how this relates to the question of identifiable minority. This reading of Williams' identifiable minorities is developed through three phasesof Williams' early dramatic career: the late 1940s, early 1950s, and then late 1950s. As the purposeof this chapter is to explore chronologically the developmentof the conceptof self-confinementin relation to identifiable minorities, I will examinethe plays in which this development is most prominent: The Glass Menagerie (1945), A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947) and Suddenly Last Summer (1958). 1 propose in this introductory part of the chapterto look at the span of Williams' early plays and highlight aspectsthat critics have focused on, and how the concept of identifiable

28
minority features in Williams' early plays. I will demonstratethat Williams' early charactersare identified as minorities becauseof their inability to achievethe selfacceptance which can liberate them from their entrapment,and strengthenthem to 5 hostility the to adapt of the exterior space. The three plays dramatisevariations of the entrapmentwithin the self. This I 'crippled 'insane 'idealised the the the self'. which will call self', self' and In levels: body, the three the entrapment operates on mind. exterior space, and Menagerie we are introduced to the stages of creating this self-confinement, through the characterof Laura Wingfield who is confined within her crippled self. She exemplifies the entrapment within the body, being peculiar and different to this others; this classifies her as an identifiable minority. Then, in -Streetcar, entrapmentis developed into a confinement within the spaceof the play. Blanche DuBois embodiesa minority figure confined within her genteel Southernidealised self. Her idealised self derives from the illusion of her status as a characterof the

Orleans 'Old South',whoseidealscontrast New her aristocratic of with experiences as a city of immigrants.Blanche'sinability to adaptherselfto the deathof the is South her feel in New Orleans. Thus, makes space aristocratic out of place in formulating Blanche'sself-confinement; prominent sheidentifiesher self with family's plantation. Belle Reve,her Southern
Last Summer is the third play to employ self-entrapmentas its central theme, particularly the entrapment of Catharine Holly's mind and reason. Her vision of the truth about her homosexual cousin Sebastian,within which she is form takes a entrapped, of fluctuating mental spacewhich categorisesCatharine as 'insane'. The play dramatisesa well-defined and clearly evolving central action:
5 The concept of exterior space meanshere the outside world of the theatrical stage,and it will be a main focus of ChapterTwo of this thesis.

29 that of the liberating of the self from entrapment.This developsa conflict between the self and the exterior space,which will be further discussedin ChapterTwo of this thesis. Although the nature of these characters' entrapment differs to have For they they subjected all are still shared ground. example, respectively, from others.This makesthem project onto their selvesthe anxiety which rejection from into Although the self offers a means of such rejection. results retreating isolation. its in from feelings them to the of rejection, self continues confine escape This rejection operatesthrough the lack of communicationbetweenthesecharacters from Moreover, interrelated the three the plays are as next play picks up and others. is last fate fears Laura The Amanda the visited on one ended. which awaits where Blanche, a version of the old maid 'living upon the grudging patronageof sister's husbandor brother's wife' The Glass Menagerie, p. 16), who in turn ends up in a 6 in mental institution similar to that which entrapsCatharine Last Summer. 'Self-confinement' is the cornerstone on which the concept of identifiable minority operatesin TennesseeWilliams' early characters.The word Williams 'self' appearsin his correspondence, where conversationsand memoirs distinguishes between two different aspectsof the self. the 'public self and the 6naturalbeing' (Harrington, p.67). The first refers to the 'somebody you are when you have a name' and is referred to as 'a fiction created with mirrors', while Williams wrote in a short essay'On a StreetcarNamed Success'in 1947: 'the only
6 This is a referenceto Amanda's words to Laura in Menazerie on the future that waits for her if she doesnot receive a gentlemancaller: 'what is there left but dependencyall our lives? I know so well what becomesof unmarried women who aren't preparedto occupy a position. I've seensuch pitiful casesin the South - barely tolerated spinstersliving upon the grudging patronageof sister's husband by one in-law to visit or brother's wifel Stuck away in somelittle mousetrapof a room - encouraged another- little birdlike women without any nest - eating the crust of humility all their life! Is that the future we've mapped out for ourselves?I swear it's the only alternative I can think of ahe-Glass Menagerie p. 16).

30
first from being is the that your existed somebodyworth solitary and unseenyou breath and which is the sum of your actions and so is constantly in a state of becoming under your own volition' 67). in Harrington, York Times, p. cited ew

Williams' words, published four days before the New York opening of Streetcar, imply that the real self is the 'unseen and the solitary' one, while the 'public self is the one created by society. He uses an image of mirrors to depict this self as a fictitious reflection of what is real. The same division of the self is mentioned in David Kaplan's thoughts on Williams in TennesseeWilliams in Provincetown (2007), a publication which includes a chapter entitled 'Public and Private'. However, Kaplan defines 'sexual behaviour and sexual identity' as a private matter in 1940sAmerica, where 'onstage and off in particular homosexualbehaviour, ...

was usually discreet in both spellings of the words: not spoken about and not Kaplan Here, life identity' 85). (Kaplan, to the connected rest of a person's or p. relatesthe 'private self' directly to Williams' homosexuality.

in is However,in this chapterthe examination the read not self of in figure but himself it is Williams (as in Kaplan's to the of relation study), rather Williams' in order to understand to early femalecharacters' relation confinement Williams' earlycareer. the development of the concept of minority throughout
Although a socio-political reading of the three plays is not relevant here, nevertheless,it is significant to relate them to the time they were written; as this context impacts on the representationof the minority question within the sociocultural framework of the plays. In 1940s America, many women replaced men in the workforce after they had gone to war, changing the shape of the society somewhat, while World War 11 changed the order of world power with the

31 emergenceof the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers.Williams stated:

our contemporary American society seemsno longer inclined to hold itself open to very explicit criticism from within. This is what we hope and supposeto be a transitory condition that began with the Second World War. It will probably wear itself out, for it is directly counter to the true American nature and tradition. But at the presenttime it seems to be entering its extremephase,the all but complete suppression of any dissident voices. What choice has the artist, now, but withdrawal into the caverns of his own isolated being? (Woods and Day, p-35: my emphasis). Although he seesthis period as transitional, it is still shroudedwith the 'complete suppression' that pushed artists like Williams to withdraw into an 'isolated' existence.This contrastswith the shift in the national picture, with America having emerged from Wold War II as a superpower. Fear of communists and those considered 'un-American' led to suspicion of anyone who did not fit into the boundaries of normality. Williams shifts from the prevailing social and political tensionsby refraining to talk about America as a superpower.Insteadhe focuseson 'isolated' characters(including the three female charactersin his early plays), the nation's minorities and tensionswithin Southern culture which were marginalized during this period of his earlier plays of the 1940-50's. While women were enjoying a degree of independence in the workplace during World War II this did not continue into the post war years with many women returning to domesticity. This is one reason why Williams' female

32 characters are very often isolated or confined within the space of the plays. Through his charactersWilliams might be projecting his own entrapmentwithin a paradox: 'an urge to becomepart of his society' linked to the 'fear of conforming to the meaninglessdrudgery of familial obligation' (Martin, p. 119). Diana Cafagnain 'Blanche DuBois and Maggie the Cat' (1997) views this paradox as leading Williams to 'dramatize his Southern characters' necessaryillusions in facing the grim realities of twentieth-century life, so in much of his early work this paradox of choice sits squarely on the shoulders of his female protagonists', who seek 'a (1949) for Blanche' (p. in Word 119). Eric Johns 'A of survival or escape' means in in 'opposites desire', he 'death this to as escape relation views reads and which the vocabulary' of Williams where 'desire is an escapefrom death, a means of forgetting it' (Johns, p. 115). Like hate and love, death and desire 'are often indistinguishable, because the boundaries which separate them are so vague' (p. 116).

Johns arguesthat while Williams' early heroines 'are trying to escape death, or their conception of death', they unconsciously embraceit in the form of 'desire, for desire is the guillotine set up in their hearts' (p. 116). Johns' view is Blanche, to while Laura does not have this conflict but remains confined relevant her self. Meanwhile in Last Summer, it is not the female character who within death in form 'the In embraces of desire', but rather its male protagonist, Sebastian. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) Maggie is not a victim of her desire but 'a warrior' illusion fights the of the Pollitt family (Martin, p. 122). Unlike Blanche who who 'floats like a moth toward a candle', Maggie has a 'vengeancefor truth' (P.123), and it is this very truth with which she confronts Brick towards the end of the play: 'Oh, you weak people, you weak, beautiful people! who give up - what you want -

33
Williams, Volume 3. in someoneto take hold of you' Qe Theatre of Tennessee p. 165). However, C. W. E. Bigsby, in A Critical Introduction to Twentieth Centujy American Drama (1984), arguesthat Williams' females 'opted for neither truth nor illusion but for the need to resist', and while Maggie in Cat 'uses truth, Blanche uses illusion' (Bigsby, p. 131, in Martin, p. 120). Nevertheless,the female characters' resistanceto the truth maintains their entrapment:the more they resist the more they are confined. Peggy Prenshawin 'The Paradoxical Southern World (in Alma Blanche, Williams' (1977) Tennessee that this elaborates view, arguing of Summer and Smoke (1948), revised as The Eccentricities of a Nip-litingal , (1965) fragile ladies. 'represent last Laura Southern Mothlike, the the sensitive,and of and in a way that is ultimately self-destructive,they are portrayed as romantic idealists in Alma Unlike by 12). (Tharpe, 1977, a graceless and callous age' p. undone Summer and Smoke,who gives up her dreams 'about beauty to becomea whore at Southern into Blanche decayed the the train old of station, parlour withdraws a aristocracy with unexpecteddignity' and ends with seeking 'promised salvation at the handsof strangers'(Martin, p. 128). SusanNeal Mayberry in 'A Study of Illusion and the Grotesque in TennesseeWilliams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1983) draws on this argument to conclude that the pervading theme of Williams' drama 'involves the tension between truth and mendacity, the gradual stripping away of pretence with the (Mayberry, consequences' p.359). Sheperceiveshis charactersas escapists ultimate Van F. ignore by 'effecting facade illusion' Thomas (p. 359). their tension a who of Laan in "'Shut Up! " "Be Quiet!" "HusW': Talk and Its Suppressionin Three Plays by Tennessee Williams' (1999) calls Williams' early characters: 'sensitive',

34 'delicate', 'poetic misfit[s], given to dreaming' (Laan, p.244). Although his descriptive words imply that these characterscontribute to their own confinement, he maintains that these characters live in conflict with 'harsh reality' and its demandsto which they cannot adapt.He views most of Williams' full length plays prior to Period of Adjustment (1960) as dramatisations of 'an aggressor-victim pattern of action' (p.244). These plays include Menagerie Cat and Last Summer. His reading sets the charactersin these plays against an 'adversary' who unlike in adaptingto the 'demandsof a harshreality', and which thesecharacterssucceeds reduces 'his or her ability to experience compassion, if such adaptation has not produced utter brutality and viciousness' (p.244). So, according to his argument this 'adversary' is privileged above the other charactersby having the ability to adapt to the 'harsh reality'. However, this view standsin contrast with the aims of this thesis.This is becausein each of the three plays which will be discussedin this is is This is 'adversary', 'central' there there no real chapter as no characteras such. to imply that Williams' concern in these plays is not to present a tension between those who are 'centralized' and those who are not but rather that his emphasisis on how his early charactersare identifiable as minority figures. The sociologist Erving Goffman's view in his book Stigm (1963) is helpful at this stageto understandthis concept of identifiable minority. He relates the question of minority to the body's signs in terms of mental illness and forms of tribal stigma. Although Williams never uses the word 'stigma' to refer to his there is a referencein his letter to Audrey Wood, from the characters,nevertheless Trade West, Florida, on March 1941. Williams refers to the fire phobia of Val in Battles of Angels (1940) as a 'psychopathic stigma' (Devlin and Tischler, 2000, Here 309). the term 'stigma' is related to the scarredbody of Val. Goffman has p.

35
the sameview, and explains that the term stigma originated from the Greeks who bad it 'to designed bodily to the to and refer exposesomethingunusual used signs about the moral status of the signifier' (Goffman, p. l: my emphasis).As well as 'an its linguistic defines Goffman to term which refers providing origin, stigma as a attribute that is deeply discrediting' as it stigmatises 'one type of possessor' to 'confirm the usualness of another, and therefore is neither creditable nor discreditable as a thing in itself (p.3). This attribute is a bodily mark which can be 'discrediting' enoughto causesomeoneto be classified as different from the others who are not stigmatised.However, for Goffman, this goes beyond the question of difference, reducing the stigmatisedperson from a 'whole' and 'normal' person to is one who 'tainted, discounted' and handicapped(p.3).

The idea of being 'discounted' evokesthe conceptof 'mutilation' Williams andthe Predicament of Women' which LouiseBlackwell in 'Tennessee is pervasive in Williams' early plays. Sheargues (1977)suggests that in his early features Williams women'as major characters', plays while after 1961,shethinks that:
Williams' doubts and fears about his own artistic powers have grown, his faith in sexual adjustment as the key to the meaning of life has through lasting waned; none of his more recent femalesattain happiness sexual relationships; some are not even concernedwith such happiness; all suffer from physical or emotional mutilation (or both) (Stanton, p. 100: my emphasis). The obvious link here is to Slapstick Tragedy (1966) where Williams includes two of his one-actplays: The GriddigesFraulein (a parable of the artist's struggle that is

36 set in a seedy Key West boardinghouse),and The Mutilated (about the rivalry between two New Orleans prostitutes). The mutilation of the body is never is directly in but the the only alluded to. elsewhereplaced narrative of early plays, For instance, in Last Summer Sebastian's corpse is scarcely described and the threat that Catharinewill be mutilated by the lobotomy operation is left open at the end of the play. Bodily abomination is viewed by Goffman a natural destiny for human. individuals: believe is 'we the stigmatised person with a stigma not quite On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination ' (Goffman, p.5). ... According to my reading, in the case of Williams' characters,such discrimination operateson the cycle of rejection within which they are entrapped.For example, Blanche's rejection of her homosexual husband is re-projected onto herself by Stanley's and Mitch's rejection of her. The samepattern of rejection is repeatedin Cat, with Brick's rejection of Skipper, which entrapsBrick with a senseof guilt. In fact, Williams' early charactersdo 'close their eyes to the needsof others' because they 'find some trait in those around them that disguststhem', yet the way out of this is the 'limitless compassion' which is achieved by ceasing to be so obsessed with the 'evil' in the self or others, that denies 'the possibility of the good' (Stanton, p. 139). The characters pass judgments on each other's faults, which disgust them until they reject eachother. So, the cycle of rejection takesthis form: Self - other - disgust --aself It is interesting that Williams drainatisesthis form of self-imprisonmentthrough the female charactersin his early plays. He admits that he 'had a great affinity with the

37 female psyche'; he likes women more than men as they respond more to him (Rader,p.271). Elmo Howell in 'The Function of Gentleman Callers: A Note on TennesseeWilliams' The Glass Menaggrie' (1970) agrees with this view and interprets that Williams' Southern 'women are doxies or fallen ladies and his men the vulgar bullies of hillbilly origin' (Howell, p.84). On the other hand, Robert Emmet Jonesin 'TennesseeWilliams' Early Heroines' (1961) maintains that critics 'have agreed that' Williams' heroines are 'his finest creation' and 'to them, as insight' has brought Southern Williams types, much representativesof certain (Hurrell, p. I 11). He furthers this argument by classifying Williams' women into two categories:'the relics of the moribund tradition of gentility in which Williams living in the illusive and legendary world of himself was reared who prefer ... something that never really was - the mythically cavalier Old South; and the 7 basically 1 1). (Hurrell, healthy, uncultured, P. sensualwomen' Other critics like Kenneth Holditch, and Richard FreemanLeavitt in Williams and the South (2002) read this idea in relation to statements Tennessee made by Williams' female characters.For example,when Amanda realisesthat the ' is know 'yes I tyranny the women! of engaged, she says gentleman caller (Menagerie, p.94: my emphasis).This phrase has been viewed by Holditch as a his Williams' life So, (Holditch 20). Freeman, through own and p. comment on female charactersWilliams conjures those women who were significant in his life:

7 The Civil War was destructive to the Southern landlord system with the fall of the social system which was based on 'slavery' ruled by 'many cultured, wealthy aristocrats' (Hurrell, p.111).With the fall of the plantation system, Southern aristocrats were faced with three alternatives: 'migrate west and start again', 'retire from active life in the New South', live in a world of false values' or 'accept the changesthe war had madeand conform to the new society' (Hurrell, p. 111).

38 his mother Edwina is revived by Amanda and his sister Roseby Laura. This leads Gassnerto read the plays in relation to Williams' 'uncanny familiarity with the fluttering of the female heart', where the finest roles he wrote were for women (Holditch and Freeman,p.22). He views this in the light of Williams' 'duality of gender', alien from his family situation which makes him 'sympathetic and empatheticwith women' (p.22).
According to his letters, conversations and memoirs, Williams had a different attitude though. He thinks that 'women are closer to life, really; they're more naked, more like naked life ... women seem to me organically closer to love, which is where life is' (p. 22). He delineates how his experience of women surfaced in his drama. There is a succession of grasping mother figures in Williams' work: Amanda of Mennerie, Violet Venable of Last Summer Alexandra in Sweet Bird
8

of Youth (1959), and Flora in The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Apyinore (1964). Readinga number of Williams' plays, John Timpane in 'Weak and Divided People: Williams and the Written Woman' (1989), questionsthe nature of what Tennessee he views to be Williams' 'identification' with women. It is not enough for Timpane to suggest:

Williams' women are like himself - American, Southern,liminal, "mutilated", sexually compulsive, given to drugs and alcohol, mendacious, and so forth. Nor will it be enoughto let pity speakfor itself, to repeat with manycritics that the typical Williams plot involves "the defeator destruction of a highly pitiable protagonist"(Schlueter, p.171).

a Williams in a newspaperinterview said of his mother 'she had the gift of gab ... I still find her totally mystifying - and frightening. It's best we stay away from our mothers' (Brown, 1992,p. 118).

39 Timpane argues that his female characters 'call on the viewer to regard a true includes ambivalence and repulsion' pluralism of possibilities - which almost (p. 172).

This 'ambivalence' originates from the characters'transitional nature. For instance, most of Williams' females are viewed by Timpane as charactersin illusion from integrity degradation, from to to 'from to transition: age, youth disillusion, from sexual certainty to sexual confusion ... while his men are set or decidedwith a correspondingloss of scope' (p. 175). 1 would argue,his women are has dominance, by this defeated the and advantagesover male patriarchal not feminist readings which always view Williams as anti-feminist. Although this it is feminist Williams' does to still attempt adopt a reading of work, not chapter important to the context of the chapter to emphasisethat Williams' females are destroyed by their own images of the selves within which they are confined. Timpane interprets their 'own predilection for destruction by their own desires' in an age (p. 175), while for Johns,they are 'the passivepawns of social forces ... (Huffell, 116). tawdriness' p. and of commercialism This causesWilliams' females to resort to disguising their real selves; this is at least applicable in the caseof the three female charactersdiscussedin this chapter, especially Blanche in Streetcar.Goffman views this disguise as the effort of the one stigmatised 'to keep the stigma from looming large' by concealing it. It is what Goffman calls an: important aspectof the "assimilative" techniquesemployed by members in intent behind devices the change such as of minority ethnic groups; known in in a the to way which restrict name and change nose shape ...

40
about attribute, obtrudes itself into the centre of attention, for obtrusivenessincreasesthe difficulty of maintaining easeful inattention regarding the stigma (Goffman, p. 103).

Here Goffman relatesthe idea to the context of ethnic minorities. Meanwhile

Williams' femalesalso resort to this 'covering' asthey do not have self-acceptance. So Blanche powders, bathes constantly and never exposesherself to the naked light. These are techniques of self-disguise, a self-defence mechanism which maintains her isolation, as the third part of this chapterwill demonstrate. Yet Goffman suggests a turning point: isolating, incapacitating experience, often

the

period

of

hospitalization,which comeslater to be seenas the time when the

individual was able to think through his problem, learn about himself,

is his sort out situation,and arrive at a new understanding of what

important and worth seekingin life (p.40). In the light of Goffman's argument, alienation is significant. Although alienation offers an uncomfortable existence,it does help the confined charactersto become liberated from the self viewed as a prison. While Williams' early charactersremain in later Iguan I Night The the thesis, the as argue of entrapped, starting with (1961) up to his later plays, Williams' charactersstrive to be liberated from the self This shifts the question of minority into an experienceof marginality, as Williams' later charactersare subjectedto spatial isolation from society, which provokes the of their real selves: that is to say the 'natural being' that Williams reappearance himself described. Despite suffering from varying degrees of anxiety, the later charactersare able to begin the quest for their liberation, as the following chapters

41
will show. However, before discussing this development, it is first important to examine a representativesampleof Williams' early entrappedfemale characters.

42 CHAPTER 1, PART 11

THE GLASS MENAGERIE (1944)

Winner of the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award, The Glass MenagerLe (1944) was Williams' first dramatic success and brought him

recognition as one of the most highly-regarded American playwrights. The early stagesof the play's composition began with Williams' one-actplay Summer at the Lake (1937), the short story 'Portrait of a Girl in Glass' (1941), and the one-act 9 Portrait Madonna (1944). of a play

The full length play with its seven sceneswas written in 1944. It is a 6memoryplay' narratedby Tom Wingfield, who is also a characterin the play. He is an aspiring poet, but is forced to work at a shoewarehousein order to support his mother Amanda, and his crippled sister Laura after their father left them behind. Amanda is a genteel Southern belle, who talks frequently about the tales of her youth in Blue Mountain, Mississippi, and about her seventeengentlemen callers. She is disappointed that her daughter Laura, who wears a brace on her leg, is painfully shy and finds a retreat in her glass menagerie collection. Tom is a dreamer who finds his solace in movies and alcohol. The main action of the play revolves around the arrival of the gentleman caller, Jim O'Connor, to the
9 The latter two are often read as being based around the life of his sister Rose,who now becomesa character in the 'family play' he was conceiving about a sensitive sister and brother: victims of a drunkard father. His working title for this play was 'Hawk's Daughter' or 'The Spinning Song' (Hate, 1989, p.36). However, The Prejjy TrV, subtitled A Comedy in One Act is an unpublished version of Menagerie 'that has a happy ending'. Williams notes on 'the title page that it is "derived from a longer work in progress,The Gentleman Caller, (1943) which has a 'lighter treatment and a different ending' (see Brian Parker, 'Foreword to The Pregy-TrM, TennesseeWilliams Annual Review 2006, p.3; the previously unpublishedplay appearsin the 2006 issueof this journal).

43
Wingfields' apartment. He is invited by Tom for dinner (at his mother's The College. drops his husband Business to after she out of persuasion) get sister a Jim by dreams Wingfields that the the the realisation of shattered play ends with has a fiancde, Betty. So Tom decides to leave home, following his father's footsteps.

The play is set in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1937 during the Great Depression.This period is still shroudedby the impact of World War 1, when the initiative in individual 'faith the and the selfultimate economy was collapsing and made capitalist was shaken. Just as in the late nineteenth century the aristocratic code of the father who could rise to fame and fortune through self-determination been has This 39). image (Rosefeldt, the to the p. of company man' was giving way duly linked to the play by Thomas Allen Greenfield in Work and the Work Ethic in American Drama 1920-1970(1982) as a direct 'attack on the modem systemof the in be found it that to the anywhere postmiddle class succumbs as can work and does dramatise drama' Williams this (Greenfield, 120). Yet, American not p. war 'modem system', but rather how this system contributes to his characters' selfdetention. This links to Williams' concern, as discussedin the previous chapter, in level the and not on an explicitly characters on a psychological reading minority socio-political one. For Anne Fleche in Mimetic Disillusion: Eugene O'Neill. Tennessee Williams, and U. S. Dramatic Realism (1997), Menagerierepresents'a U. S. culture is just frame, [Williams] in freeze as worried about the and caught an existential 'freeze' Here for (Fleche, 81: the and words emphasis). p. my remedy' possibilities 'frame' suggest an image of a stuck culture, which Williams dramatises in by image his Menqgg. three characters'self-confinement. the of rie

44 They all sharethe needfor someoneor somethingto liberate them, as they are too weak to break away from their confinement by themselves.They need a role model to follow, and this is presentedin the play through the image of the 10 4gentleman for caller' whom they all wait. Williams describes'exactly what is a gentleman caller' as the 'one who stays a short time' (Brown, 1992, p. 118: my emphasis).This suggeststhat any relief the gentleman caller could bring is only temporary, suggesting a sense of falsehood to the liberation he can offer to Williams' three confined charactersin Menagerie.As this chapterwill demonstrate, Jim, the gentlemancaller, represents the false hope of liberation for the Wingfields. In the persistent attempts of critics to relate the play to Williams' personal life, the play is always viewed as the most autobiographicalof his works, 'Amanda is Edwina Williams; and Laura is based where Tom standsfor Tennessee, on his beloved sister, Rose, who underwenta lobotomy' (Buckley, p. 16). With this play Williams is viewed as having held 'a miffor up to memory and caught upon it the breath of three lives: his mother's, his sister's and his own' (Kalem, p.55) and, for Otto Reinert in Modem Drama: Nine PlUs (1962), a play 'in the modem democratic tradition that assumes that serious drama can be made of the sufferings of small people' (Reinert, p.449, in Howell, p.85: my emphasis).In my reading, the play is indeed about small people who are like the tiny omaments, the glass menagerie confined within their selves: Amanda within a mental space of the decayedSouthernpast, Tom with his unfulfilled dreamsand adventures,and Laura within her crippled self. However, the main focus of this chapteris on Laura who is given a limited voice in the play. Her constantsilence is seenby Thomas F. Laan in "'Shut Up! " "Be Quiet!" "Huslf': Talk and Its Suppressionin Three Plays by
10The 'gentleman caller' is term a which refers to the suitor who visits a lady for marriage's proposal in the'Old South'.

45 TennesseeWilliams' (1999) in the lack of 'lengthy self-expressive speeches' (Laan, p.247). This silence will be viewed as a symptom of her self-entrapment, which identifies her as one of Williams' early minority characters. The concept of the identifiable minority in this play is oriented towards Laura's self-imprisonment, particularly in terms of her body. The play introduces stages of creating this confinement through Laura's crippled self. Williams uses plastic theatre techniques(music, screenand light) to externalisethe experienceof Laura's confinement but also to parallel her vulnerability and fragility. The arrival of Jim at the Wingfields' apartment is viewed as a metaphorical violation and invasion of Laura's body, and this part of the discussionwill close by considering the impact of this invasion on the framing of Laura's self-confinement in Menaaerie. This will be read in relation to the liberation which is implied in the credo of 'Rise and Shine', and in its representationof theological concernswhich have a significant role in the dynamics of the questionof minority in the play." Laura's self-entrapmentis not causedby her physical limp, but rather by her negative self-image. For Eric P. Levy in "'Through SoundproofGlass": The Prison of Self-Consciousness in The Glass Menagerie' (1993), the effect of this is to make Laura 'intensely protective of her self-image, and to self-consciousness shield it from exposureto anyone outside the home' and so gradually she 'has no life outside preoccupation with her own vulnerability' (Levy, p.530). This vulnerability operatesthrough her crippled self, by which she identifies her body until she seems 'a little peculiar to people outside the house' (Menagerie, p.48).

11 4 RiseandShine'is a termusedin MenaRerie. It is Amanda's the morningof everysingle mottoof receiving day.In Scene Four, the first thing we hearAmandacalling is 'Rise and ShinelRise andShine' (Menagerie p.28).

46
This implies that the Wingfields' apartmentis the spacewhere she is acceptedand outside of which she is labelled as 'peculiar' and 'different from other girls' (p.47). The Wingfields' apartment offers her a kind of protection; visualised on the stage by the description of the setting 'flanked on both sides by dark, narrow alleys which run into murky canyonsof tangled clotheslines,garbagecans, and the sinister latticework of neighbouring fire escapes'(p.3: my emphasis).This implies that there is a senseof ambiguity and darknessoutside the apartment.With the detailed description of daily life such as 'garbage' and 'clotheslines', a senseof everyday suffering that prevails in this unknown area outside the apartment maintains the image of the protection offered within. This suggeststhat the setting offers a spatial freedom and relief from the entrapmentthat operateswithin their own selves,as is the casehere with Laura. On this reading, they do not develop any kind of conflict within the space.The image of the fire escapewhich is 'part of what we see', stagedwith its landing and the 'steps descendingfrom it', functions as an accessiblespatial escapeand outlet (p.3). However, describedas 'accidental poetic truth for all of thesehuge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation',space is used in the play to give an illusion of reality as suggested by 'poetic the words -

truth'. It is an illusory spatialmeans who sufferfrom of liberationfor the characters

self-entrapment,as the words 'burning' and the 'fire of human desperation' imply. The fire is the striving for individualism, implicit within the description of the in setting the stagedirections: the Wingfield apartmentis in the rear of the building, one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living units the apartment ...

47
facesan ally and is enteredby a flre escape,a structurewhosenarneis a

touch of accidentalpoetic truth, for all of thesehuge buildings are

always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation.The fire escapeis part of what we see that is, the landing it of and stepsdescendingfrom it (p.3: my emphasis). The words 'hive' and 'conglomerations' suggest a kind of unity, where the Wingfields are part of this section of American society which avoids 'fluidity and differentiation' in order to exist and function as 'one interfused mass of automatism' (p.3: my emphasis).Gradually from the opening raising of the curtain, as the play unfolds it is revealed that there is no 'one mass', but rather there is individualism in this 'hive-like conglomeration'. Therefore, the play is not one of a groupi s unity - that is to say the Wingfields' unity - but rather a drarnaof confined selves. However, the charactersin the play live the illusion of this 'one interfused is inspired by the spatial setting. This illusion is maintained by their that mass'

inability to facetheir own individualself-entrapment within theunity.

Like the menagerie- 'the scoresof transparentglass animals' which in are seen 'an old-fashionedwhatnot in the living room' - the three charactersare placed together in the Wingfields' apartment, living the illusion of unity (p.4). Although the collection of glassis always referred to as Laura's, it is a visual image of all three characters.For example, in SceneOne, Laura is describedin the stage directions as 'washing and polishing her collection of glass' (p. 11: my emphasis). The use of the possessive pronoun 'her' maintains this ownership. However, as the play unfolds the parallel betweenthe glassmenageriecollection and the entrapment of the three charactersbecomes explicit. In other words, as Fleche explains, the word 'menagerie' means 'mixture' and comes from 'mdnage, the word for

48 household and household management.Etymologically, then, it suggestsless the presenceof animals than the logic of human spatial arrangement, a logic that covers its threat of mixture and contamination' (Fleche,pp.86-87: my emphasis). In this reading, these characters are living the illusion of unity; as Amanda puts it: 'we have to do all we can to build ourselves up. In thesetrying times we live in, all that we have to cling to is - each other I (Menggerie, p.31: ... my emphasis). However, they fail to fulfil Amanda's suggestionsof clinging to each other, and actually reject each other. This originates from their being preoccupiedwithin their own identities, blinding them to seebeyond the self Laura rejects Tom's dreaming self. 'all this time at the movies' (p.26), while he rejects Amanda's legendary past: 'you'll go up, up on a broomstick, over Blue Mountain with seventeen gentlemen callers! You ugly - babbling old - witch' (p.24). Amanda rejects Laura's crippled self. 'never use that word not you're why, ... crippled, you just have a little defect- hardly notice' (p. 17). Meanwhile, like the glass,the charactersare transparentto eachother. For instance,in SceneFive Amanda asks Tom 'is my head so transparent' and this confirms that they are transparent to each other (p.40). This transparency is maintained by the use of the plastic stagetechnique, with the use of the screenand the characters'thoughts appearingas a legend on it. When Amanda talks about her past in Blue Mountain, a screen legend appears saying: 'Ou sont les neiges

d'antan? '

(P. 9). 12

However, Williams uses plastic theatre techniques(as he

mentions in the production notes to the play which precede the printed text) to conceptualisethe drama as a 'memory play', which 'because of its considerably

12Meaning 'Where are the snows of yesteryear', a quotation taken from a poem by Frangois Villon and an expressionof nostalgia.

49 delicate or tenuous material' justifies 'atmospheric touches and subtitles of 13 direction' (Troduction Notes', Menagerie).

In addition to these plastic techniques, the interior setting of the apartmentsuggeststhe characters' transparency.In other words, there is no actual from spatial boundary betweenthe rooms: for instance,the living room is separated the dining room by a 'wide arch or secondprosceniurn with transparent faded portieres' (Menagerie, p.4: my emphasis). So, the faded look and see-through nature of the portieres maintain this transparency,where what takes place in any one of the rooms can be easily seenfrom the others. There is also the kitchenette, which suggests anotherimage of transparencywithin the apartment. Furthermore, these characters are a menagerie as all are driven by 'instinct', which Amanda refutes as 'something that people have got away from! It belongsto animals' (p.34). However, for Tom 'man is by instinct, a lover, a hunter, a fighter'. The three charactersall operate on instinct: Amanda is a fighter who survived after her husbandabandonedher; Tom is a hunter who seeksadventures; and Laura is a lover who falls in love with the hero-imageof Jim from high school. Yet, Amanda denies this instinct and this makes her the least similar of the three within the menagerie. For these three charactersto be liberated from their self-entrapment, they need to 'Rise and Shine', in the words with which Amanda welcomes the morning of every single day. Here the credo implies two actions:the physical act of
13Williams choosesthe occasionto reject the 'straight realistic play with its genuine Frigidaire and authentic ice-cubes,its characterswho speaksexactly as its audience speaks' as everyone 'should know nowadays the unimportance of the photographic in art', because'truth, life, or reality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence,only through transformation, through changing into other forms than those which merely present in appearances' (quoting Williams' production notes in C. W. E. Bigsby 'Entering The Glass Menagerie', in Roudand,p.33).

50
rising and the metaphoricalact of shining. However, although Amanda initiates this

credo,sheworks againstit. On the onehand,shealwaystries to maintainLaura's

seating position, as her daughter is not allowed to rise. For instance,in SceneOne when 'Laura rises' Amanda asksher to 'resume her seat', and she adjusts again to the 'sitting down' position (p.7). On the other hand, Amanda also monitors Tom's physical actions and movements. She watches him with 'hawklike attention to every bite' he eats (p.6). Shetries to control the way he eats,talks, acts and thinks. She uses imperative verbs: 'chew', 'don't push' 'stop that shouting', and 'lower by (p. 21). However, Tom Amanda's your voice' rebels physically against control laying down his fork, pushing his chair or shouting, whereas Laura passively accepts her control. So in Scene Two, realising as Amanda 'appears on the fire escapesteps', Laura 'catches her breath, thrusts the bowl of omaments away' and 'seats herself stiffly before the diagram of the typewriter keyboard' (p. 11). She resumesthe seating position out of fear of Amanda, who always feels agitated when she seesLaura not seated.Her seatingposition gives Amanda spaceto feel more responsibility for Laura. This responsibility springs from her illusion of superiority over Laura's crippled self, while sheherself is entrappedwithin her own faded Southern genteel self. Her children perceive this entrapment,so the moment she starts talking about her past they know 'what is coming' but they let her tell it as 'she loves to' (p.7). Levy has the samethought, as he views that Amanda uses 'others as mirror to reflect the self-image with which' she wishes to identify. On the other hand, he suggests that Laura and Tom fear 'that through relation to others they will be reduced to mere reflections, trapped in the miffor of the other's judgment' (Levy, p.529).

51 Laura is aware that her confined self is transparent to the others,

because her self-expression is monitored and observedby Amanda and Tom. Afraid that Laura will 'be an old maid', Amandamonitorsher daughter'sselffrom the very beginningof the play she asksher to 'stay fresh and expression; pretty' as it is 'almost time for [the] gentlemen callersto start arriving' (p.10).
Consequently,Laura 'nervously echoesher laugh' and 'slips in a fugitive manner through the half-open portieres and draws them gently behind her' (p.10: my emphasis).The word 'fugitive' suggests a retreat to hiding her own self which is so visible to Amanda. By retreating to the faded and transparent 'portieres', Laura fails to shield the visibility of her confinement. The contrast establishedin this stage direction between her act of slipping and the effect of a 'shaft of very clear light' which 'is thrown on her face' connectsto the 'Rise and Shine' credo (p. 10). Williams' use of theatrical technique demonstrates how Laura can shine under the influence of the physical light but cannot rise physically. This is as a result of Tom's and Amanda's constant attempts to keep her in a seating position to her maintain self-confinement, visualised by her constantly 'clenched hands' and (panicky expression' (p.20). Her bodily clenching is a reflection of her own holding onto her crippled self, which she cannot open up out of the fear of rejection. On the one hand, Amanda does not accept Laura's crippled self, as it implies that she hasjust to stay home, while she should prefer her daughter to study or to find a husband. When Laura tells her that she is crippled, Amanda tells her 'never to use that word' as it is a taboo word for her (p. 17). Tom is more realistic about Laura's crippled

self thanAmanda:'Laura seems she'sours all thosethingsto you andme because and we love her. We don't evennotice she's crippledany more' (p.47). For him

52 Amanda has to 'face facts', which for Amanda constitute a difference 'from other girls' which is to Laura' advantage. This rejection of Laura's crippled self escalates when she is out of the apartment.For instance,at school she is more consciousof her disability than when she is at home, where 'her hands shook so that shecouldn't hit the right keys', 'she broke down' and was 'sick at the stomach and almost had to be carried into the free is because is (p. This 14). Laura to wash room' mainly not strong enough herself from her self-confinement, so she projects it onto her body through illness. These symptoms represent her subconscious revolt against her self and her freer feels She to this with them resorts she of self. non-human objects as rejection to expressherself than she does around people. So, she quits the BusinessCollege house houses' big 'art 'bird box, 'the Jewel to the that glass and goes museum', and Amanda flower' (p. does 15). However, Laura tell they the tropical raise not where the reasonsfor this, as she is not strong enoughto expressherself to her mother. This is becauseAmanda tries constantly to reconstruct Laura's own bodily self-expression.For example, realising in SceneFive that Laura's chest is flat, Amanda stuffs Laura's bosom with 'two powder puffs' (p.52). She will be a Gpretty trap' and she can be the 'prettiest' shewill ever be, but this prettinessis fake as it is a reflection of Amanda's own self image. To illustrate further, in preparation for meeting the gentlemancaller in SceneSix, Laura wears a dressthat is 'colored designed by memory' (p.5 1: my emphasis).Here the word 'memory' suggests and that Amanda revives through this dressthe image of her youth in the South, when she used to meet her own gentlemencallers. Amanda tries to adjust Laura until 'a fragile, unearthly prettiness' comes out in her. The way her body is presented makes her acquire a kind of fragility: that of a 'piece of translucent glass touched

53 by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting' (p.51). This is becausethe light is an artificial one, coming through the 'colored paper lantern' which concealsthe 'broken light fixture in the ceiling' and highlights the falsity of her self-image (p.5 1). Asked by Amanda to look at herself in the miffor, Laura sees the unreality of her reconstructedidentity. Levy views this mirror as a symbol of Amanda's 'judgment of her', that aims to 'provide, by contrast,a flattering self-image for Amanda' and confirms in Laura a 'senseof her own inferiority' (Levy, p.530). Moving slowly towards the long mirror, Laura 'stares solemnly at herself and a 'wind blows the white curtains inward in a slow, graceful motion and with a faint, sorrowful sighing' fterk, her is This 53). Laura's through that sighing parallels expressed p. own anxiety 'troubled look', 'swaying' and 'shaking'. It results from the conflict between her is This Amanda Jim. the tries to to anxiety self-image and one which represent increased when Laura realises that she used to know him at high school. She 'sways slightly', resorting to the chair which she catcheshold of This is paralleled in the music, which becomes'ominous' reflecting Laura's own anxiety: sheknows that the way she is representedby Amanda is different from her real self of which Jim is aware. She tries to avoid meeting him and tells Amanda that she has to excuseher as shecannot 'sit at the table' with him (p.55). However, pushed by Amanda to meet him, the symptoms of Laura's her developed by insists Jim's When Amanda opening the on seclusionare arrival. door, Laura 'returns through the portieres, darts to the Victrola, winds it frantically direct it doing (p. her 57). By turns and on' so she projects own anxiety, and as a 'faraway, feeling in Victrola. Then the the result of vulnerable seeks refuge scratchy rendition of "Dardanella" softens the air and gives her strength to move

54 through it'; ultimately she 'slips to the door and draws it cautiously open' (p.58). With the caller's arrival, Laura becomesmore consciousof her disability. This is her body low by 'a visualised as she utters moan', and adopts a panicky gesture with her fingers knotted, her movements those of 'retreating' 'trembling' and 'stiffness'. Thus, when Amanda invites Laura to come to the table dinner with Jim, a legend on the screenreads 'terror'. She appearson the stage'quite faint, her lips trembling, her eyes white and staring, and she moves unsteadily toward the table' (p.65). This parallels the summer storm outside which is 'coming on abruptly', where the 'white curtains billow inward at the windows and there is a sorrowful murmur from the deepblue dusk' (p.65). Here the storm reflects the anxiety inside Laura, who feels exposedin Jim's company. The tension is escalatedtowards the end of SceneSix, with Laura clenching her hand to her lips with a shudderingsob. Asked by Jim about her cold hands, he sets himself in contrast to Laura. He tells her she has to play 'a little hot swing music' insteadof the classical piece, in order to warm her up. Laura avoids this by retreating to the Victrola where she 'catches her breath and darts through the portieres like a frightened deer' (p.58). Her fear originates from her feeling of being vulnerable to Jim who startsto violate her body by touching her hand. When he extends his hand to her, she 'touches it hesitantly' (p.58). This hesitance springs from her fear of being violated. At this point Jim realises Laura's weakness:that she is 'a shy girl' who cannot communicate with others. She representsa good opportunity for him to practice what he learned in the public speechcourse,and he tries to build up her self-image. Her movement on stage shifts from darting to walking, and by the beginning of Scene Seven Laura has her 'eyes wide and adopted a seating position with mysteriously watchful' with the lamplight bringing out 'the fragile, unearthly

55 prettiness which usually escapesattention' (p.67). In the glow of this light Laura seemsmore vulnerable to others, as the word 'fragile' connotes. When Amanda asks Jim to go to Laura in order to keep her company, she hands him a candelabrum that 'used to be on the altar at the Church of the Heavenly Rest' (p.70). This implies an image of resurrection, where Jim symbolisesa saviour for Laura who will liberate her from her self-confinement. When he enters the dining room carrying the candelabrumJim can be interpreted as a catalyst who can aid Laura's liberation. In SceneSeven,Jim startsto adopt specialtechniquesto achieve this.

First, he tries to make her feel more comfortablewith herself, he Then from floor. her 'nervously' the the to sitting upon sitting move on sofa makes his in high During by him knew him telling to that starts she school. up she open conversation with Laura, the 'terror' which was the legendon the screenat the into a singingvoice off-stage.This reflectsLaurastartingto beginningis changed be more comfortablewith herself in Jim's presence. However,as the dialogue for her it is for is Jim 'incident that the while clear unfolds, apparently unimportant' it is 'the climax of her secret life' (p.70). This is to imply that her 'secretlife' starts
to unfold and, as it does, Laura develops freer physical movements.Instead of her 'stiffness', she 'rises', 'crosses' and 'crouches' and her shynessdissolves 'in his warmth' (p.77). She talks about her disability which makes her feel embarrassed into her for 'getting hard' 'it the she goes auditorium when at school: was so upstairs' with the brace on her leg which 'clumped loud like thunder' (p.75). Gradually, Laura startsto come under Jim's influence by sharing with him her identification with the glassmenagerie.When Jim asksher about what she has been doing since high school, she reaches for a glassy piece 'to cover her

56 tumult'. Laura devotes her energy and time to caring about her own glass

Shedescribes them as 'little articles' and 'ornaments'which are 'little menagerie.

animals made out of glass' and 'the tiniest little animals in the world' (p.82). They are so delicate that they can be broken by one's breath. Like them she should be held gently as she is fragile and can be broken easily. With the unicom standingfor Laura, by placing him on the table away from the other horses,Jim plans to make Laura experiencesomethingwhich can liberate herself during his presence. Inviting Laura to dance,through which he tries to liberate her from the inferiority complex

he 'holds his armstowardsLaura', 'taking her in that derivesfrom her leg-brace,

his arms', 'swings her into motion', and gradually she is liberated from her bodily stiffness (p.85). However, this is not entirely successful:he is describedin the stage direction as moving her 'about the room in a clumsy waltz' till they bump into the table and see'the glasspiece on it fall to the floor' (p.85). It is not only Jim's 'clumsy waltz' which breaks the glass piece, but rather it is the temporary status of the liberation which she experienceswith Jim. This is visualised by the breaking of the hom of the unicom. Here the unicom

visualisesLaura, where she projects her own confined self onto its hom. Her
crippled self makes her identify with the unicorn, which is identified among the other animals by its horn. By losing its horn, the unicorn starts to becomelike the others. Laura acceptsthis as shetells Jim that shewill imagine that the unicorn 'had an operation' to remove the horn and make him feel less 'freakish' (p.86). After dancing she feels less different, as she is temporarily liberated from her feelings of entrapment.

Her acceptanceof her self as 'different' is developedby Jim's words that 'being different is nothing to be ashamedof' (p.87), encouragingher to free

57 herself and feel more comfortable with people. Ultimately by kissing her, Jim tries to build her confidence up to make her 'proud insteadof shy' (p.88). However, the act of kissing can be read as a violation of her personalspace.The kiss is intended to prove Jim's successin building up his own self-esteem,or to demonstratehis by his reaction after the act of kissing: superiority over Laura. This is demonstrated his attitude flips suddenly and he returns back to his realistic attitude towards life. He starts talking about 'peppermint' in a similar way to talking about the chewing 14 beginning gum at the of the scene. This provides a way for him to tell Laura about Betty, his flancde. This parallels a changeinside Laura, as she resumesthe swaying movement to grip the arm of the sofa. Her physical movements on the stage

her retreatbackto a stateof confinement. visualise

Laan notes that on realising Jim cannot see her anymore '[Laura's] speechbreaks down completely; she can respond only with the faintly delivered and broken question'; gradually she stopstalking altogether until 'she speaksonly in a visual and gestural symbol' (Laan, p.249). On the other hand, Jim is described
'oblivious' and entrapped in 'his own comfortable being' (Menagerie, p. 90). This

as comfort is achieved by his successin liberating Laura ftom her self Realising that Jim is engaged,Laura 'places the unicorn' in his palm as a souvenir. Laura knows that she can no longer identify with this broken unicom as it has become like other horses,and she prefers to be different. On one level this difference will maintain her senseof confinement, but this act can be read in relation to Laura's view of Jim as one of the glass collection. Like the Wingfields, he is a glass omament and his self is transparentto others. Laura recognisesthat he is entrapped

he thinks only of himself.Levy supports because holdingthat Jim is this argument,

14 At the beginning of SceneSeven,Jim talks in the sameway about the chewing gum and about the 'fortune madeby the guy that invented the first piece of chewing gum' ftnagerie p32).

58 preoccupied'with his own self-image', and the only difference is that, while 'Laura

The identifiesasthe victim of self-consciousness, Jim identifiesas its beneficiary. function of his love for anotheris to enhance fundamental his love for himself
(Levy, p.535). It is this self-love which makeshim take the public speechcourseto be able to expresshimself. This does not make him superior to others, though he is in his that admits self still the processof liberation. This recognition is read by Bigsby as a kind of acting where Jim is a

in his wordsas 'momentary hesitation 'hucksterfor success', as readingthe dashes

he reachesfor a languageadequateto the self-confident role he wishes to project'. Eventually, Jim leaves with more self-confidence; he 'stops at the oval mirror to discreetly his hat' 'carefully brim to the the a shapes and crown give put on and dashing effect' (Roudan6, p.40). Jim seems to be admiring himself, and Levy is he is by his 'concern 'defined that argues mirrors and self-consciousness and tainted with self-interest', using Laura as 'miffor in which to reflect a flattering image of himself and 'her senseof inadequacyas a meansto magnifying his own dramatic (Levy, 534). his indicates Thus, departure Jim p. as a positive attributes' catalyst who temporarily liberates Laura from her self-entrapment.Nevertheless, Jim cannot continue in his relationship with Laura becausehe cannot play the role of saviour, as he himself has not achievedhis own self-acceptance. Towards the end of the play, Laura retreats back to her confined self is her luck. She 'yes' her instruction Jim to to only reply mother's wish where readoptsthe 'crouching position' besidethe Victrola while Amanda tries to comfort her with words. The act of -crouching brings into the argument the image of

in Williams' father-likeGod to whom he kneelsdown at odd hours(as discussed

59 the previous part of the chapter). Retreating to God is visualised by the kneeling down position which is a constant image in Williams' early plays. Here Laura's crouching position can be read as an act of kneeling down to Williams' God, to whom she resorts by approachingher father's Victrola. This is mainly becausethe image of this God follows the pattern of the personified image of the father-figure, Mr. Wingfield, who abandons the characters until they doubt his existence. According to Thompson, as quoted by Paul Rosefeldt in The Absent Father in Modem Drama (1995), the father's name 'which juxtaposes "wing" and is fused with an image of mundane "field" shows how a symbol of transcendence reality' (Rosefeldt, pp.41-42) visualised by his 'blown-up' and 'larger-than-lifesize' photograph (Menagerie,pp.4-5). The immensity of the photograph (suggested by the words 'larger than life') implies a kind of almightiness; and, with its being hung up on the wall, a kind of heavenly ascendancy is suggested. Michael Paller in Gentlemen Callers: Tennessee Williams, Homosexuali1y and Mid-TwentiethCentujy Dram (2005) views in this photograph an escapefrom the Wingfields' desperatesituation, as the man in it is smiling forever because'he is up and left with no more than a two-word postcard:hello-Goodbye' (Paller, p.37-38). Rosefeldt refers to Tom as the son who lives in a 'present world which is a wastelandand a prison house, a world of constrictions and confinementsfilled with artificial objects that are corroding and turning into junk, lost and alienated' (Rosefeldt, p.37). He developsthis idea to suggestthat Tom feels like other sonsof absent fathers 'compelled to bring back the father to follow in his path' and he 'seeks to recreate the father through doubling him, searching for him, creating
15

15Here the reference is to the previous part of this thesis on 'Who Are TennesseeWilliams' Minorities' where it is cited that before the play opens, Williams 'will go into a room alone and kneel down and pray' (Frost pp.33-34).

60
by fathers' is important (p. 42). It Tom's the to escape surrogate question whether end of the play follows the steps of the father figure who abandonsthem. The is father he Tom's the to of contributes own confinement: entrappedwith absence the image of this father-figure which makes him sacrifice his self to follow in his father's steps. The father is not only absent but he is also in a constant state of flight. His postcard 'acknowledges his presence,then closes his discourse', while his smile in the 'larger than life size photograph on the mantel' 'haunts his son [Tom] and points out the path of escape' (pp.40-41). Tom becomesa reflection of his father by following his path, but he never finds him 'for the path to the absent father is endlessroad' and 'he has to find anotherfather figure to replacehim as the ideal father' (p.43). This implies that the absenceof the father leavesa vacuum that 'propels the dramatic action to create doubles for the father' who 'comes in the This (p. 43). father' form of a savior [sic] figure the that the miracle will replace ... figure can be read into the characterof Jim.

With Jim's arrival, Amandarecreates the meetingwith the father,Mr. Wingfield, as shewearsthe samedressshewore when shemet him: 'she wearsa girlish frock of yellowedvoile with a blue silk sash... this is the dress... I had ... her father' brings day (Menagerie, I 53). She the wedding out also met your p. on for Tom the saviour father who can take silver to serve him. Jim represents family, his dream for free Tom be the that to of so pursue can responsibility liberates brings Furthermore, Jim Laura light temporarily to the adventure. which her. Laura's temporary liberation from her confinement lies within the metaphorical actionof shining.
In Scene Five: 'The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise', the word 6sunrise' implies two actions: rising and shining. The second action is associated

61 in is like Laura. She hung from 'large the the that the ceiling' with glass sphere

Dance Hall which would 'turn slowly about and filter the dusk with delicate
rainbow colours' (p.39). The image of the 'delicate rainbow' is a parallel to Laura lasting is light is She deceptive. that a vague and needs who always shroudedwith a light in order to shine. Although Jim is positioned as the light force by carrying the candelabrum towards Laura in Scene Seven, he provides her with a 'flickering light' which is vague and impermanent. This kind of light cannot provide Laura lasting is bring her life. light Instead,she Jim the to to shining, with so unable a real needsto find this light of faith in her self To realise that, she needsto be enlightened by the glow of lightning. This is implied in Tom's final words in the play: 'for nowadaysthe world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura - and so goodbye' (p.97: my emphasis). The word lightning suggeststhe concept of a God of thunder and lightning, which echoes Williams' perception of God as discussed in the previous chapter. This her from image God liberate Laura light the the of as sourceof symbolises who can confinement. There are few details given about God here, although closing the implies 'goodbye' the that God has abandonedHis creatures. word sentencewith So the way to God is not suggestedin the play. Nevertheless,Laura's image in blowing the candlesout symbolisesher refusal to acceptthe vague light. Positioned

in the sentence within brackets, '[She blows the candlesout]', Laura is left
in confined darknessby the end of the play (p.97).

The failure to achieve liberation lies within the contradictionof Amanda'scredo 'Rise and Shine'. Robert L. McDonald in "'By Instinct": The
Problem of Identity in The Glass Menagerie' (1997) supports this argument by viewing that 'in the same breathy gestureswith which [Amanda] begs Tom to

62
engagelife with enthusiasm,to "Rise and Shine", she seemsperversely dedicated to keeping him subordinateto her' (McDonald, p.61). This subordinationis read in this chapter as a feature of Tom's presencewithin the group as the householdman family (see Menagerie, p.30), but when Tom's mother accuseshim of the of selfishness he becomes 'unhinged and typically shouts some thin defence of himself' (McDonald, p.60). This is because,unlike Laura, Tom's self-liberation hinges on the act of rising, which he is awarehe will not realise: he says,'I will rise but I (Menagerie, 28). is Here 'rising' won't shine' p. a metaphorical act of -

movingtowardshis unfulfilled dreams of adventure andindividualism.

However, by the end of the play Tom fails to liberate himself and is still entrappedby his family's memory and by Laura whom he feels 'touches' his is he he be He he finds leave behind him, but Laura thinks to shoulder. may able 'more faithful' than he intends to be. Moving out of home, his escapefails to liberate him from his self imposed confinement. He keeps up his routine: namely, smoking, going to movies and drinking. He reaches'for a cigarette', crosses'the

to 'the nearest street',runsinto 'the moviesor a bar', thenbuys a drink andspeaks

stranger' to find anything that can blow out Laura's candles (p.97). In this sense, Tom cannot be considered as either a centred character, liberated or one of the because the charactersin Menagerie are all pushing each other towards majority,

confinement.
The charactersprevent each other from being liberated out of their

hold like to the menagerie need onto eachothercollection- in orderto survive. Amandaclaims: 'we haveto do all we can to build ourselves up. In thesetrying
' (p.3 1: my times we live in, all that we have to cling to is - each other ... is It the characters' need to be part of a unified group which confines emphasis).

63 their identities in the play. In this way, the image of the menagerieis inseparable from understandingthe theme of self-confinement in the play. Nevertheless,the play suggeststhat the first step towards self-liberation is the moving out of and breaking away from the unity of the group, which proves to be illusory. Menaaerie closes with Amanda's final words to Tom: 'Go, then! Go to the moon - you selfish dreamer!' (p.96: my emphasis). Amanda's statement questions whether Williams envisagesfor his charactersa way out of their selfconfinement towards the moon. In other words, does the way out of the self lie in lifting away from the earth towards the heavenly moon, and does this suggestthat liberation is found in escapismor elevation?In fact, this way out of the self towards the moon is developed through the plays that followed M aerie, but, as I will later argue,Williams' charactersdo not really achievetheir liberation until his later plays. The first step towards the way to the moon is the movement out of 'home' and all its implications of security, protection and unity. This is developed in A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947) through the characterof Blanche DuBois who has lost her 'home'. Blanche faces the destiny which Amanda expects for Laura: "stuck away in some little mousetrapof a room - encouragedby one in-law to visit another - little birdlike women without any nest - eating the crust of humility all their lifeV (p. 16). In order to discuss this, the next part of this chapter questions whether the possibility of self-liberation lies away from the home. As I will show, Williams' early charactersafter Menagerie fall into other kinds of confinement.

64 CHAPTER 1, PART III

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1947)

The Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) brought fame and successto TennesseeWilliams. After The Glass Menageriewent into rehearsalsin the winter of 1944, Williams startedupon a play in be first Blanche's Chair Moon the title seen as an and which can was whose hot in is He Blanche Streetcar. seen a wrote only one scenewhere early version of Southern town 'sitting alone in a chair with the moonlight coming through a window on her, waiting for a beau who did not show up' ftemoirs, p.86).

Williams stoppedworking on it when he becamedepressedand, written in 194546, Interior: Panic is 'believed to be the only extant one-actversion of A Streetcar Named Desire'.16

In Streetcar the concept of identifiable minority is oriented towards Blanche DuBois' self-confinement. Blanche representsa minority figure confined death idealised inability herself her Blanche's to the to of self. adapt within genteel the 'Old South' makesher feel out of the place in New Orleanswith its sordidness in formulating is its Thus, the stark vulgarity of residents. space prominent and Blanche's self-confinement. This is causedby the identification of her self with Belle Reve, her Southern family's plantation. Arriving in New Orleans, Blanche's idealised self becomes tom between two conflicting spaces:the exterior space, Stanley's apartment in New Orleans, which is a representation of the new

16 Interior: Panic, a previously unpublished play is published in the 2007 issue of Tennessee Williams Annual Review. The full-length version of the play with eleven scenes was written in 1947 (seeBray, 2007, p.3).

65 capitalistic South with its cosmopolitan 'intermingling of races', and the fluctuating mental space of Belle Reve representing the faded 'Old South'. This originates from the conflict between Blanche's 'Victorian upbringing' with its 'constant industrialism' 'post-Civil the and romanticizing', war of New Orleans, which into lonely isolation' 'a her 'the to escape recesses pushes of a as she represents doomed for the new the to of aristocratic south refusing settle proud symbol industrial squalor' (Martin, pp. 120-23). Here, great emphasiswill be placed on interpreting Stanley's violation of Blanche's idealised self. This violation will be read by examining Blanche's use of her voice to project her own self-entrapmenton others and on the exterior space in discussion by looking her. This the will conclude around at rape scene relation to Blanche's disposal of her idealised self until she is completely confined. Blanche's liberation lies in her own self-realisation;with her failure to achievethis realisation, the play doesnot offer a way out of her confinement. The overall argument will be approached by a close reading that decodes the stage directions; reading physical and spoken language as well as visual and aural images. The chapter will close by considering the impact of Blanche's self-confinement on the framing of the concept of identifiable minority in Williams' early plays. Streetcardramatisesthe arrival of Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle, to the Kowalskis' apartment, where she meets her sister, Stella and her husband Stanley. As the play unfolds, we can trace a series of confrontations

between Blanche'sSouthern Stanley's brutality. These confrontations gentility and

Stella Stanley Blanche's to a peak when and when reach reveals promiscuouspast

66 Mitch falls in love with Blanche and plans to marry her. Stanley's ultimate triumph over Blanche is achieved by his raping her while Stella is at the hospital giving birth to their baby. The play ends with Blanche committed to a state mental institution after her story of rape is refuted by everyoneincluding her sister Stella. The 'two-storey comer building on a street in New Orleans' Streetcar,p. 115), has two spatial areas:the downstairs level and an upper space. The spatial movementsof the characterswill be read in relation to thesetwo levels, recounting a symbolic parallel where the upper spatial level standsfor the idealised and pure image of the self and the lower part symbolises animal physicality and sexualdesire.The 'faded white stairs' which 'ascendto the entrances of both' areas (p. 115), suggestwith the use of the word 'white' an image of purity and an area of feels Blanche to which retreats whenever she confined within the escape physicality of the ground level of the Kowalskis' apartmentor when the action gets heated.Her vertical spatial movement on the stairs will be read later in this part of the chapterin relation to her confinement in Kowalskis' apartment.This symbolises an image of conflict betweenBlanche and the space.

in a white 'suit' with a 'fluffy bodice' and 'white Her appearance gloves' as if shewere arriving at a 'summertea or a cocktail party in the garden district' can be seenin oppositionto the cosmopolitan spirit of the city with its (easyinterminglingof races' (p.115). Describedas 'incongruous to the setting', Blancheis set in conflict with the spatialsettingfrom the very beginningof the 17 her image This maintains play. as a minority-character who is not part of New Orleans''intermingling of races';Jan-omChalermsrie in 'The Characterization of Womenin Tennessee Williams' Work' (1979)supports this argument, statingthat
17The city offers Williams a unique spacewhere the Southerndominance(i. e. Blanche) becomesa minority.

67 in Elysian Fields Blanche stands apart from the 'sordidness of the place affiving in intermingling it is 'downed the the chaotic style all and and people, of races' as kinds of noises' where the residents do not talk quietly but rather 'shout, below, holler and swear openly' (Jan-orn, p.57). This is contrasted with Blanche's preceding image of Elysian Fields which as the name suggests,according to Greek his is had led 'place life where one who mythology, a a good on earth could spend life after death happily ever after' (p.56). Realising this conflict between spaceand her idealised self, Blanche tries to escapeby taking long hot baths and tries to 'dull her senses to thesethings by becoming intoxicated' (p.58). The very act of bathing is an attempt to wash away her sordid past and tainted morality in order to maintain the illusion of her idealised self. Although this provides her with temporary relief, it her continues self-entrapment. actually From the very beginning of the play, the spatial opennessof the Kowalskis' apartmentmakes Blanche sit 'in a chair very stiffly with her shoulders slightly hunchedand her legs pressedclose together and her handstightly clutching her purse' (1treetcar, p. 119). Her body language and movements suggest she is trying to protect herself from this spatial violation. Gradually as her 'blind look goes out of her eyes' she 'begins to look slowly around' as she startsto examinethe place in order to know how to defeat it (p. 119). First she resorts to liquor by pouring herself a 'half tumbler of whisky' in order to pull her fragmented self together. This is implied in her words: 'I've got to keep hold of myselr (P.119: my lack So, is by the she experiences self-fragmentation emphasis). which maintained boundaries the spatial at the apartmentwhere there is 'no door betweenthe two of rooms' (p. 124). The lighted interior which looks like one indefinite entity makes thesetwo rooms 'not too clearly defined' (p. 118).

68 Blanche's secondtechnique is avoiding the light bulb, a spatial item which entrapsher in the apartment.Here light is developedfrom the physical light of the bulb into the metaphorical light of truth and reality that highlights her real self by exposing her ageing features which she tries to disguise. John D. Hurrell arguesin Two Modem American Tragedies (1961) that for Blanche this 'reality is an electric light bulb which is too blinding to be endured', so 'everything must be seenby candlelight which never shows the shabbinessand horrors of the present' (Hurrell, p. 115). He developsthis by claiming if 'a light bulb is a symbol of reality in the plays of Tennessee Williams', so 'the candle' is a symbol of escape(p. 115). This view of escape is present in Blanche hanging the Chinese lantern with coloured paper to diminish the age wrinkles of her real self. JosephRiddle in 'A Streetcar Named Desire: Nietzsche Descending' (1987) reads this in relation to shade as 'Blanche lives in a world of shades,of Chinese lanterns, of romantic melodies that conjure up dream worlds or perversionsturned into illusory romances or alcoholic escape,of time past' (Riddle, p. 17, in Martin, p. 122). So, Blanche prefers the shadethat provides 'magic' instead of 'reality', and she tries to 'give that to people' by misrepresenting'things to them'. She doesnot want to represent

the truth of herself, but what 'ought to be [the] truth' (Streetcar, p.204). This her ageandher sexuality, to accept springsfrom her unwillingness andshebuildsa different self: 'what ought to be' the true self, she endsup with a self that is a rcflectionof her real self.
Blanche is conscious of the way she looks (the way she represents herself) and seeks approval from others by asking 'how do I look' (P.144). This from the fact that she does not representher real self but rather a 'look' originates of this self, an illusory image of her fragmented self, and shetries to check how far

69 this image is perceivedby others and how real it looks. For example,shetells Stella 'you haven't said a word about my appearance'(p. 122). She expects Stella to ask her questions,Stella realises this 'little weakness' of Blanche, so she tells Stanley to 'say something nice about her appearance'and to 'admire her dress and to tell her she's looking wonderful' (p. 132). However, unlike Stella, Stanley refuses to discuss 'looks' and 'appearance' with Blanche, but rather he tries to violate her idealised self until she feels entrappedwithin it. This violation operatesthrough his constantstaring at Blanche and his act of checking on her. Blanche feels violated by the very act of looking, so she tells Stella: 'don't you look at me, Stella, no, no, no, not till later, not till I've bathed and rested' (p. 120). However, Stanley keeps on staring at her, so with his first appearanceshe tries to draw involuntarily back from his stare. The act of staring establisheshis territorial relation to the place, so he checks everything including her. He wants to see the paper, ask questions, 'appraise' things, and 'make an appraisal' of her and what she owns. To achieve that, he shoots 'the question that pries into the very personal life of Blanche' (Jan-orn, p.60). He asks her what she teaches and about her past marriage. By doing that he has 'touched her most sensitive past - her marriage, the suppressed pain which has been lurking in her imagination all the while' (p.60). Talking about her past and her marriage, Blanche feels confined. This is visualised in SceneOne the moment her 'head falls on her arms , and she 'sinks back down' (Streetcar,p. 130). Stanley's violation of Blanche its reaches peak in this scenewhen he pulls 'open the wardrobe trunk" jerking out Gan armful of [her] dresses'(p. 134). Belle Reve is identified with her 'solid-gold' dress, 'fox-pieces' and her 'costumejewellery' and 'bracelets of solid gold' in this trunk (pp. 133-34). She reflects on how the touch of 'his handsinsult them' and she
9

70 'will bum them' (p. 139), because she considers it a violation of her self as identified with Belle Reve. For Stanley, Belle Reve is 'details' and 'papers', and he wants the 'legal papersconnectedwith the plantation', while for Blanche it is the lost home which she struggled for till it slipped from her fingers piece by piece (P.138). It is transformed gradually in her mind into a graveyard where 'all but' her and Stella 'have retreated' (p. 140). It 'should finally be this bunch of old papers' in Stanley's 'big, capable hands' (p. 140). This is to imply the image of Stanley's hands as the bodily violator of her self. Here Blanche's self is identified with this bunch of old papers and the 'love-letters' and 'poems' written by her dead husband. These papersrepresentthe dead 'Old South' to which shetries to hold in order to confin-n her self in contrastto the brutal nature of Stanley. Blanche's act of bathing is her first self-defence mechanism. She builds her own sanctuarywith the bath that she requisitions at the beginning of the play. She is always 'soaking in a hot tub to quiet her nerves' whenevershe feels her is self degraded(p. 133). In other words, she reacts to the dirt and the vulgarity to which she is exposedin the Kowalskis' apartmentby bathing herself. For example, in Scene Three, when she is exposed to the 'poker night' with its dirt and the physicality of its players who do not have enough Southerncourtesyto 'get up' for her, Blanche decidesto bathe. She tries to elevateherself up from this physicality in order to maintain her illusory idealised self. Moreover, with her constantbathing, Blanche tries to revive the look of this self, So, after bathing, she tells Stella 'a hot bath and a long, cold drink always gives [her] a brand-newoutlook on life' (p.192).

71 Blanche usesher voice as anothermeansof self-defence.For instance, sheprojects on Stanley all words that reducehim to a savageanimalistic brute. She views Stanley as 'common', 'sub-human' and a 'survivor of the Stone Age' who grunts, swills and gnaws (p. 163). She tries constantly to asserther superiority over his 'downright' nature which is in conflict with such things as 'art as poetry and music - such kinds of new light' (p. 164). Consequently this starts to feed her idealised self by giving her the illusion of being superior to him. Through her verbal abuseof Stanley, she maintains this illusion. She resorts to this abuseafter she fails to gain Stanley's approval. For instancein SceneTwo, when asking 'how [does she] look', Stanley makes it clear to her that he does not 'go in for' compliments 'to women about their looks' (p. 137). So, failing to achieveapproval, Blanche usesverbal abuseas a defencemechanism,especially after she is exposed to Stanley's constantrejection. Feeling entrapped by this rejection, Blanche adopts the same technique using words to project this entrapment on Stella. For example, when Stanley hits Stella in SceneThree, Blanche gets Stella's clothes and 'guides her to the outside door and upstairs' (-Streetcar, p. 152). By taking her upstairs spatially, Blanche tries to elevate Stella metaphorically away from the sexual brutality and physicality of Stanley, but implicitly she tries to project on Stella her own selfentrapment by playing the role of the saviour. So, her assuring words: 'Stella, Stella, precious! Dear, dear little sister, don't be afraid' are subconsciouslydirected to herself (p. 152). Maher Ben Moussa in 'The Re-Invention of the SelfPerformativity and Liberation in Selected Plays by TennesseeWilliams' (2001) argues that Blanche tries to drag her sister to share with her the 'idealised past world' which she wants to relive in order to confirm her belief of the unbearability

72 of the present world (Moussa, p.28). He looks at Stella as a companion who Blanche needsin this revival, and 'also [she needsto] get Stella's confirmation that her illusion can be turned to reality' (p.29). However, Moussa's argument relates this to Blanche's internal conflict betweenillusion and reality. So, for Moussa,her dilemma is that she has 'to compromisebetween her private and public identities', which leadsto a 'state of polarization and conflict that living with the two identities entail'. He adds that 'Blanche is torn between the two extremes of her identities: her burning desireand the puritanical tradition in which she was raised' (P.32). The present study goes further than this dual-identity conflict and views Blanche's use of her voice when talking to Stella as a means of confinement which makes her vulnerable to Stanley. Gradually, Stanley starts to be threatenedby Blanche's influence on Stella. This situation worsens when Stella is taken by Blanche up to Eunice in SceneThree. For the first time in the play, Stanley 'breaks into sobs' shuddering and stumbling (Streetcar,p. 153). Realising that his 'baby doll's left' him, he loses his stability. This stems from his fear that he will lose Stella. So, he projects his

fear through soundby shouting and bellowing her name in front of the own building until shecomesdown to him. However,whilst shouting, Stanleydoesnot his association the stairs;this embodies ascend metaphorically with the lower area in which visualiseshis animal physicality and sexuality to which he succeeds draggingStella by the end of the scene.With 'heaven-splitting violence' Stanley bellows 'STELLLAHHHHH!' (154), and the capital lettersemphasise the act of shoutinghere as a meansof objectionto Blanche'sattemptto project her self-

73 18 him; Stella. Stella by descending to the t6this entrapmentonto stairs responds cry they both 'come together with low, animal moans', then Stanley 'snatches the screendoor open and lifts her feet and bearsher into the dark flat' (p. 154). The act of lifting her up visualises Stanley as the one who can elevateStella by, ironically, taking her down to her physicality and sexuality. Blanche realises that she is defeatedin her effort to elevate Stella as sheruns back to Stanleyrather than kept at Eunice's apartment.Consequently,Blanche fails to project her own self-entrapment on Stella. This is visualised by her inability spatially to enter the 'dark entrance' of the flat; she 'catches her breath as if stuck' rushing down to 'the walk before the house' (p. 155).

Following this sceneBlanche starts to feel more confined within her is Stanley In Scene Four her life Stella tries to that self. she with convince something which she has to 'get out of (p. 158), and the reference is implicitly to herself as she feels entrapped,but Blanche tries to play the role of the saviour who free Stella. So she suggests'the way out' by getting 'hold of some money' or will 19 in is Shep Huntleigh. her 'not On Stella feels that anything' contacting side, she by 'to (p. is because, 158). That Blanche she wants get out of' who operates unlike rejecting Stanley's brutality and physicality, Stella tolerates it. She realises that poker is his pleasureand 'people have got to tolerate each other habits' (P.158). It is also 'brutal desire' which ties them together. This is visualised in the poker night; down Stella to Stanley he 'falls on his knees on the stepsand presses when comes his face to her belly, curving a little with maternity' until her eyes go blind with

'a Stanley's act of shouting is powerful in the 1951 film which was directed by Elia Kazan and featured Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley as Stella and Vivien Leigh as Blanche. It is made into a Williams festival in April 2007. shouting contest in the New OrleansTennessee 19 Blanche used to go out with ShepHuntleigh at college. Sheran into him 'on Biscayne Boulevard, on ChristmasEve', and he has 'oil-wells' all over Texas (Ltreetcar p.159). It is not clear in the play whether he is a real characteror he just exists in Blanche's mind.

74 tendernessas she catcheshis head 'and raises him level with her' (p.154). Stanley between be brutal he it 'all them Stella's desire thinks right' since will addresses again 'after [Blanche) goes' (p. 195). As such, he revives in her mind the noisy image of their brutal desire: it's gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night the way that behind lights to the we used and get going with nobody's sister coloured the curtains to hear us (p. 196). Stella used to love 'having them coloured lights going' until Blanche arrived in New Orleans (p. 199). Here the 'coloured lights' stand in contrast to the white She it for her Southern hold, Blanche to tries to past. genteel as stands purity which indulgence brutal from her be Stella with to elevated spiritually sexual wants Stanley. By doing so Blanche is using Stella to maintain her own illusory idealised Belle image inside Blanche Stella To the this to of self. achieve useswords revive Reve with its white columns from which Stanley 'pulled' her. She reminds her of their upbringing in Belle Reve which Stella has forgotten as she stands'waiting for him [Stanley]! Maybe he'll strike [her] or maybe grunt and kiss', and she pursues her in order to hold onto 'some tender feelings' and not to 'hang back with the brutes' (p. 163).

Overhearing her at the end of this scene, Stanley realises that Blanche's voice is her means of projecting her self-entrapmentonto Stella, so he tries to quieten her down. Although Stanley adoptsthis technique before this scene, it escalateslater in the play. For instance, in Scene Three, hearing Blanche and Stella laughing, Stanley asks them to 'cut that conversation' and 'to hush up' (p. 147). However, told by Stella that it is 'my houseand I'll talk as much as I want

75 to', Stanley adopts violence in order to silence Blanche (p. 147). When Blanche turns the radio on in the samescene,Stanleyjumps up 'crossing to the radio, turns it off stopping short at the sight of Blanche. Here the radio is used as a visual metaphor of Blanche's voice rebelling against Stanley's act of hushing. In other words, although he warns her to turn it off, she turns the knob on the radio and 'it begins to play "Wien Wien, nur du allein ..; she waltzes to the music with dromanticgesture' while Mitch moves 'in awkward imitation like a dancing bear' (p. 151). Felicia Hardison Londr6 in 'A Streetcar Running Fifty Years' (1997) agreeswith this view, arguing that the radio 'galvanizes Stanley into aggressive action' as he seesBlanche 'has lured his wife and his best friend into her orbit' in (Roudand,p.55). However, Stanley's violence increaseswhen Blanche succeeds attracting Mitch. So, in Scene Three, ignored by Mitch, Stanley stalks 'fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom' snatchingthe radio and tossing it out of the window (atreetcar, p. 151). Stanley feels intimidated by the romance between Blanche and Mitch; he realisesthat Blanche uses Mitch to confirm through him the image of her idealised self which puts her in a superior position to Stanley. Here Mitch functions as a factor through which Blanche maintains her self image in the Kowalskis' apartment. He is the only characterwho approvesof Blanche's idealised self. For example, in the poker night, Mitch's courtesy makes him stand up for Blanche. Through him Blanche tries to revive and hold together her illusory idealised self. Mitch is described in the stage directions as 'glancing back at Blanche', 'coughing a little shyly' and he has an 'embarrassedlaugh' (Streetcar, p. 146). Mitch representsfor Blanche what we can call a manageable self, which Blanche sayshas 'a sort of sensitive look' which is vulnerable (P.146). This vulnerability results from the fact that his 'mother is sick', which revives in

76 the mind of Blanche the image of Belle Reve and its associationwith death. Mitch is kindness that the she saviour whose represents she needs after she realises defeatedby Stanley. However, meeting him in most of the scenesspatially before is He 'at image being the them together or steps', a visual suggested. of entrapped is unable to elevate her on a metaphorical level. This is mainly becausein her her idealised him, by Blanche self relationship with operates consciously adopting For instance, in SceneSix when she askshim to have a 'night-cap' and 'leave the lights off, she 'lights a candle stub and puts it in a bottle' (p.177). She avoids the light as it metaphorically spotlights her real self which shetries to hide. Accordingly, Stanley adopts tactics to uncover this self by

dispossessingBlanche of her idealised self image. Asked whether she 'knows somebody named Shaw' who 'is under the impression he met' her in Laurel at a hotel called the Flamingo, Blanche realises that Stanley has discovered her past along with the reality of her self (p. 167). As a reaction her face displays a 'faint it for bottle She dampens her handkerchief to touch the shock. reaches cologne and to her temples (pp. 168-69). She resortsto the 'cologne bottle' as a visual meansof purifying her self.

in Gradually she developsher voice as a self-defence mechanism orderto maintainher idealised self image.Shestartsto shift her voice from talking into 'laughing', 'screaming'andgiving 'piercing' cries.Thesecriesare developed in Scene Seven into singing a 'saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapuntallywith Stanley's speech' (p.186). Her singing parallels Stanley's Stella he illusory her idealised Stella. He through tells to words self which uncovers that 'she'sbeenfeeding[them]a packof lies' (p.186).

77 Blanche's real self, which Stanley uncovers, is a 'downright loco' as high is by 'told kicked her 'they the the to town' she mayor get out of out of and school' (p. 188). However, Stanley fails to make Stella condemn Blanche as she 'pulled the wool over' her eyes as much as Mitch's. Stella's non-acceptance of Stanley's words about Blanche is visualised by her body language;when he 'comes up and takes her by the shoulder rather gently', she 'gently withdraws from him' (p. 190). So, failing to get Stella's expected rejection of Blanche after what she hears, Stanley realisesthat he cannot defeat Blanche. Consequently,he startsto use

his voice against her. He startsshoutingat her to 'get OUT of the BATHROOM!
Must I speakmore plainly' (p. 191). On her part, Blanche defendsthis violation by singing with 'little breathlesscries and peals of laughter' in the bathroom (p. 188). Calling her a 'canary bird', Stanley realises her singing is a self-defence mechanism,so he usesthe sametechniqueto defeat her (p. 191). However, Blanche's indifferent attitude to Stanley's words and her continually displaying illusory idealised self escalateshis anxiety. He projects this anxiety onto the physical objects by jerking 'open the bureau drawer' slamming it

he cannotforce his shut and throwing 'shoesin comer' (p.167).This is because

is her because Stella between However, this them. violence on of standing violence increasedin SceneEight when Stella commentsthat he is 'too busy making a pig of himself and he has to 'go and wash up' as his face and fingers are disgustingly greasy (p. 194). Using these words such as 'pig', 'disgustingly' and 'greasy', Stanley realises that Blanche has succeededin projecting her voice as a selfdefencemechanismonto Stella, who starts echoing her words. It is the first time in

the play where Stellarefersto Stanleyin theseanimalisticterms.So, he 'hurls a plate', 'a cup and saucerat the floor' (pp.194-95).By the end of the samescene,

78 Stanley augmentsthe use of violence in hushing Blanche up: he bawls at her when he talks to Mac (his friend in the bowling team), 'QUIET IN THERE' (p. 197). The use of the block capital letter enforcesthis violence. In return, Blanche startsto use laughter and smiling as a way to defeat his constant hushing up and violence; always defensive,this in fact maintains her self-entrapment. This entrapmentdevelopsout of her fear of being caught betweentwo extremes:namely, death and desire. This is oriented towards the image of 'home', is developed in her mind from the place of protection onto a place 'where which dying old women rememberedtheir dead men' (p.206). This originates from her 20She tells loss of Belle Reve, and her attitude to the image of her dead husband. Mitch 'have you ever had anything caught in your head?Some words, a piece of music? That goes relentlessly on and on in your head' (p.201: my emphasis).She refers to the 'polka music' which they played when her deadhusbandshot himself, and which resoundsin her head when she is distressed.After the truth about her is discoveredby Stanley, this image of death changesfrom a fluctuating mental space into a fixed image which she verbalises. So she tells Mitch: 'there now, the shot' [that killed her husband], 'yes, now it's stopped' (p.202). The idea of spatial protection for Blanche offers an alternative to death and takes her away from desire. However, realising that her time is over at the Kowalskis' apartment after she is given the bus ticket back to Laurel, Blanche startsto be hauntedby the image of death.

" Blanche's ex-husbandcommits suicide after Blanche has confronted him about his homosexuality. Althoughit is not explicit in the dramatic text thathe wasgay,therearesomehints 'therewassomething differentabouttheboy, a nervousness, subtextually: andtenderness a softness (Ltrte__t_car,, which wasn't like a man's,althoughhe wasn't the leastbit effeminate-looking' p-183). Leaving most of her sentences about him incomplete,Blanchefeels guilty for rejecting his homosexuality.

79 This image of death is visualised on the stage by the blind Mexican woman who carries 'bunches of those gaudy tin flowers that lower-classMexicans display at funerals' (p.205). Gary Harrington in 'The SmashedMirror: Blanche in A StreetcarNamed Desire' (2002) observesthat Blanche is the only one who has any contact with the Mexican woman or 'recognise[s] her presence', as Mitch makes 'no response' to her arrival at the door. Harrington suggeststhat the Mexican woman can be taken as 'an embodiment of the guilt Blanche feels that she is a conjured image regarding her past' (Harrington, p.69). It is suggested of Blanche's entrapment within death, staged spatially in SceneNine when 'the Mexican woman turns slowly and drifts back off with her soft mournful cries', and Blanche 'goes to the dresserand leans forward on it' (Streetcar,p.206). The voice of the Mexican woman reminds Blanche of death, and so following its disappearance, Blanche is caught by the image of desire as opposite to death. This image of desire is visualised by Mitch's sexual advanceson Blanche, when he hands 'his places on her waist and tries to turn her about' (p.206). Foster Hirsch in 'A Portrait of the Artist: the Plays of Tennessee Williams' (1979) views Blanche's sexuality as a way of transforming herself- 'a movement of desire into a death wish, into self-annihilation'. Hirsch arguesthat it is a way of 'punishing herself for her betrayal of her homosexual husband', like Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) who 'betrays his friend Skipper when [he] reveals that he is homosexual' (Hirsch in Martin, p. 124). It is not only Blanche's betrayal of her homosexual husband, but also her projection towards the same pattern of rejection which pushes her towards self-annihilation. In other words, Blanche's rejection of her homosexual husband is re-projected onto her by Stanley's and Mitch's rejection of her. They both passjudgment upon her as her

80 promiscuity disguststhem. When she asks Mitch to marry her, he tells her: 'you're not clean enoughto be in the housewith my mother' (atreetcar,p.207). Asking her for what he has 'been missing all summer', Blanche realises that Mitch is trying to push her to the edge of desire. In other words, by rejecting the chance to marry her and secure her a home (which can offer her spatial protection), Mitch pushesBlanche to the alternative extremewhich is desire. So, she starts to screamand 'cries wildly' until he 'turns and goes out of the outer door, clatters awkwardly down the steps and around the comer of the building' (p.207). Here, she uses screaming as a way of projecting her despair as she 'suddenly rushes to the big window with its pale blue square' (p.207). Her ' is by falling her her knees to entrapment visualised at the end of the scene? For the first time in the play she adoptsthis downward position which parallels her descent to her real self, the self being in a low position as she can no longer maintain the facadeof her idealised self. After being confronted by Mitch, her idealised self starts to disintegrate.In SceneTen she tries to confirm and hold onto this self by wearing a 'solid and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed silver slippers with brilliant set in their heels' (Streetcar,p.208). Placing 'the rhinestonetiara on her head before the mirror of the dressing-table', Blanche's act of looking at the mirror symbolises her visualisation of this self as she looks at the reflection and it (p.208). Here Blanche shifts from using singing and screamingtowards assesses 4murmuring' to addressthis reflection by talking 'excitedly as if to a group of

21Blanche's falling to her knees parallels Stanley's actions earlier in the play. Stanley in Scene Three 'falls on his kneeson the stepsand presses his face to her [Stella's] belly, curving a little with maternity' (p. 154). By falling to his knees Stanley resorts to the physicality and the sexual instinct of Stella. This is visualised by him pressing his face to her belly; the next morning Stella's 'hand restson her belly, rounding slightly with new maternity' at the beginning of SceneFour (p. 156).

81 spectral admirers' (p.208). These admirers are imagined by Blanche as a way through which she can seek self-acceptance of this idealised self. So, after a short monologue in the same scene,she 'tremblingly' lifts 'the hand mirror for a closer inspection'. Here the word 'inspection' implies that she is examining how real her self-reflection looks. By slamming 'the mirror face down with such violence' till the glass cracks, Blanche realises that this self is shatteredand no longer exists (p.208), and the cracking of the glassvisualisesthis shattering.

Nevertheless, Blanchekeepson holding onto her idealisedself. In other words, she still views herself as a 'cultivated woman' of 'intelligenceand breeding'(p.211). However,shethinksthat shehasbeen'foolish casting pearls ... before the swine' (p.212). Here the referenceis to Stanley and Mitch, who his loses illusory her her holding Stanley Because this challenge self. self, of onto patience with her.Taking advantage of the absence of Stella,he confrontsBlanche with the shattering of this idealised self. He asksher to 'look' and 'take a look' at herself(p.212).By askingher to do this, Stanley triesto makeher realisethat sheis putting on an illusory self. Shoutingat her face:'Ha-Ha! Do you hearme?Ha-haha' Stanley parodies Blanche's laughter (p.213: my emphasis).This predicts his triumph over her as the 'Ha' sound here symbolises his ability to hush her up without expecting any further response from her. This maintains her selfentrapment. This entrapment is impeded within her words when she tries to call Western Union, repeating 'desperatecircumstances' 'caught in a trap' 'caught inOh! ' (p.214). Here, the 'Oh' sound parallels Blanche's fear of being caught between the 'lurid reflections' which appear 'on the walls' around her with inhuman voices 'like cries in a jungle', and the image of 'the prostitute [who] has

82

22 drunkard' (p. 213). Herethe imageof the prostitutevisualises the threatof rolled a desirethat is waiting for Blanche,culminatingin the rape scenethroughwhich Stanley triesto rid Blanche of her illusory idealised self completely.
To achieve that, he realises that he has to violate her body as it the spacewhere this self lies. So, by wearing his 'brilliant silk pyjamas', represents he adoptsa refined appearance to prove to Blanche that it is he who has becomethe by the refined fabric of the silk. refined, decentand superior self. This is suggested So, when she seeshim in his pyjamas, she gaspsand 'backs away from the phone' (p.214). However, his constant staring at her violates her, so she tells him she has G got to get out somehow' to let her 'get by' him (p.214). Yet she cannot pass by him, not only becauseshe has no spaceto retreat to, but also becauseshe cannot defeat him after she has lost the self with which she is identified. He tells her that she 'has plenty of room to walk' by him. However, he thinks that it wouldn't be bad to 'interfere' with her (p.2 I As he stepstowards her his movementvisualiseshis final spatial violation of Blanche's self before he rapesher at the end of the scene. By smashinga 'bottle on the table' in order to face him, Blanche tries to defeat her self. However, she fails as the broken bottle top visualises her shatteredidealised self which she can no longer defend. Stanley realises that this self cannot defeat him. He wonders why she doesthis as he bets she can twist the 'broken end' in his face. She fails to do so, and she ends up sinking to her kneesto be carried by him 'to the bed' (p.215).

When Stanley springs at Blanche in the rape scene,Anne Fleche in Mimetic Disillusion (1997) reads it as 'a last barrier has been broken down, and
22The use of these disembodied voices originates from the one-act version of the play, Interior ELn-i1g. Williams portrays 'Blanche as being increasingly detached from reality by hearing disembodiedvoices and becoming more and more paranoid' (Bray, 2007, p.5).

83 Stanley's is jungle' 99). is (Fleche, there that the p. no space outside now brutishnesssucceedsin dispossessing Blanche of her idealised self. This leads her to be entrappedwithin the shatteredimage of this self. When her story of the rape is her by including Stella, Blanche's pushing entrapmentescalates, refuted everyone to the edge of insanity. At this stage,Stanley's voice startsto causeher a 'shocked Eleven in Scene hears him, him. For so she avoids example, gesture' whenever she Here, (p. 220). in Stella does front 'want tells that to those men' she of she not pass the referenceis to Mitch and Stanley in front of whom shefeels vulnerable after her idealised self has been dispossessed. This vulnerability is developed when Stella and Eunice ask her to 'hush! ' her 'sudden hysteria' (p.219). The vulnerability results from the shattering feeling her idealised identify, her With to of selfof self. no self-image with which captivity increases until she feels the needto 'get out' of Stanley's apartmentwhich becomesa 'trap' for her with the 'cathedral bells' are the 'only clean thing in the Quarter' (p.219). Here the bells chiming standin contrastto the soundof Stanley.It is the voice of faith which Blanche needsin order to free her from her confinement.

The sound of the bells overlaps with her monologue andher wish to 'die on the sea' buried at 'sea sewn up in a clean white sack' (p.220). Here the words 'clean', by inspired her wish for purificationandelevation 'white' and'water' symbolise as from her situationwhich is the soundof the bells. Blanchedesiresto be rescued by her gazingtowardsthe sky wishing to 'go thereon a rocketthat characterised down' 'looks (p. 141). By Scene Three, the up at the sky' comes she never end of (P. 155). In Mitch for being kind 'thank kindness I tells spite you now' and so need it offers her an outlet for this elevation of the temporarynatureof this kindness, by finding her personifiedGod on Earth.Blancheneeds to which shecan achieve

84

find Him in someone and by the end of SceneSix, shetells Mitch 'sometimes there's God - so quickly' (p. 184). The image of God she finds in Mitch is replaced

by the doctorat the end of the play; they sharebetween them the kindness which
Blanche seeks. Her dream to die hand- in -hand with 'some nice-looking ship's doctor' makesher surrenderto the doctor at the end of SceneEleven (p.220). Thomas P. Adler in 'The Search for God in the Plays of Tennessee Williams' (1977) posits with this view as he writes about Blanche's need 'of her love by helping her, her God to to to someone and reassure of someone mean

failure belief in her humanity' in Mitch's (Stanton, 140). However, refind a own p.
to fulfil this role, Blanche has no option but to surrender to the kindness of the fatality doctor. The God-like is by doctor the the the stranger: aspectof confirmed of his arrival where no one in the scenecan stop him taking Blanche away. They all realise it is her fate to leave as she 'couldn't stay' and 'there wasn't no other place for her to go' (&treetcqr,p.224). However, it is only Stanley who tries to 'block her way' when she stops inside the door as she realises that the doctor is 'not the gentleman' shewas expecting (p.222).

Following her into the flat to ask her whether she has forgotten
something, Stanley's voice along with the Matron's greeting, is 'echoed and reby echoed other mysterious voices behind the wall' which are the 'cries and noises of the jungle' (p.222). They are the very samenoisesheard by Blanche in the rape scene. The animalistic tone of the cries visualise them as the cries of the brutal

desirewhich defeatBlanche'sidealisedself by the end. The soundof Stanleyis

by echoed these cries and noisesto imply that he is the catalyst who shedslight on and uncoversBlanche's wretched self by raping her. The image of Stanley in Scene

Eleventearingthe lanternoff the light bulb to 'extendit towardsher' visualises the

85 physical act which makes her surrenderto the grasp of the Matron. By crying out 'as if the lantern was herself', Blanche realisesthat she is completely dispossessed of her illusory idealised self, and there is nothing left in Stanley's apartment to identify with (p.223). So, the play ends with the sound of Stanley's 'luxurious sobbing' and the 'sensual murmur' of his brutal desire of 'love' after Blanche's departure (p.226). The 'murmured' nature of this sound suggestsits weakness.This is to imply that although he succeeds in driving Blanche to a mental institution, Stanley does not represent the liberated self in the play. He has an anxiety for selfaffirmation. He wants to affirm himself in contrast to the genteel Southern background of Blanche. For example, when she calls him 'Polack', he gets defensive: 'I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks.But what I am is one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatestcountry on earth and proud as hell of it' (p. 197). Blanche ends up screaming and crying as a way to verbalise her She is led by doctor Kowalskis' the the until she apartment. entrapment out of her doctor's 'gentle it to the crying and surrenders and reassuring' voice as calms her 'lurid (atreetcar, 225). Its 'assuring' the subsides reflections' nature makes P. feel it is the God-like voice which can briefly liberate her from self-confinement; but it is only temporary as Williams does not present in the play the liberation of Blanche.

Blanche'sself-confinement Williams' her early categorises as one of her from By break fails Blanche the the to characters. away minority end of play, her imposed in locked because be has to the truth the confinement, self about rape

86 mind and not to be revealed to others. Here truth as a mental fluctuating spaceis developed into another form of entrapment within which Blanche is confined towards the end of the play. This kind of confinement is developed further in Williams' Suddenly Last Summer (1958) where we are presentedwith Catharine Holly who is a developedversion of Blanche. Like Blanche, Catharineis entrapped by truth and will be committed to the stateasylum.

87 CHAPTER 1, PART IV

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER (1958)

Stop it! - Catharine, be still (Sister Felicity to Catharine in Suddenly Last Summer,The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 3, p.357). As the above quotation suggests, Suddenly Last Summer (1958) develops the Catharine identifiable in to the of concept of self-entrapment minority relation Holly's mind and reason. The vision of truth about her cousin Sebastian,within which she is entrapped,takes a form of fluctuating mental spacewhich categorises Catharine as being insane. This is becausethe self here is a space of conflict between the 'truth' within her own mind and the illusion of 'truth' in the mind of the other, Mrs. Violet Venable. The discoursebetweenthesetwo conflicting visions forms the dramatic heart of the play and the action lies with the development of Catharine's vision into action through the liberation of the truth from her mind into the exterior space. Given that it is one-act play with limited dramatic action, directions in be decoding language this to the stage chapterwill and emphasis given with a specific focus on reading verbal and non-verbal languageas well as visual and aural images. The play departs from the two discussedpreviously, dramatising a well-defined and clearly evolving central action: that of the liberating of the self from entrapment.To consider the play's theme of self-liberation it is important to insane 'insane Catharine I Holly. the term the confined consider self of will use self' to refer to the self-entrapmentof Catharine's mind that identifies her as one of

88 Williams' early minorities. This part of the chapterwill decodefluctuating mental is basis how Catharine's In the to spacewhich of self-entrapment. order understand this dynamic operates,this part will be centred on decoding this self in relation to the two conflicting visions of truth presented in the play about the identity of

SebastianVenable. The characterof the homosexualSebastianprovides an his illustrationof how an easilyidentifiableminority character by be can obsessed in self until it destroyshim. I will concludeby examiningCatharine'ssuccess liberatingher insane it to the exteriorspace by the endof the play. self by exposing The The play represents links Williams' transitional that a stage early work and Night of the Iguana(1961),which will be the focusof the next chapter.
The themes of the play can be tracked back with Williams' two short in 'The Poet' 'Desire Black Masseur', the stories and and which were published One Arm and Other Stories (1948), and to a pair of plays published under the title Garden District (1958), the first 'a tragicomic' one-act play entitled Somethin Unspoken and the second 'the more important work Suddenly Last Summer' (Memoirs, p. 175). This full-length play in four sceneswas published in 1958. It inspired by Williams' trip to Barcelona in July 1953 where he saw a 'band of was black-plucked-sparrow children shrilling about for bread and making percussive serenades with flattened out tin cans' (Devlin and Tischler, 2004, p.492). This is the origin of the play's theme and its images of sexual procurement, horror and predation. When Williams started working on Last Summer he mentioned to Margaret 'Margo' Jonesin a letter in 1945that he was writing a 'play about a werede inspired Cabeza Lobo by intimated Mexican He that wolf a of one'. painting 'it will be a bit longer than [the one-actplay] Purification and I hope it may finally

89 23 In 13). it. is full horror' (p. be good enoughto use on a program with It spite of of its horror and savageimages,the play is still viewed by Williams as one of his bestwritten dramas: 'there are passages' which were as well written as anything Williams consideredhe had done (Memoirs, p. 176). The play premiered in New York at the York Theatre in 1958 under the title Garden District and was adapted for film by JosephL. Mankiewicz in 1959.

The play is set in a Gothic-Victorian mansion in the GardenDistrict of New Orleans. It revolves around Mrs. Violet Venable's attempt to hide the truth about the homosexuality of her son Sebastianand his death. She tries to convince Dr. her lobotomise Cukrowicz, a neurosurgeon Lion View, to the niece, at stateasylum, Catharinewho witnessed Sebastian'sdeath in Cabezade Lobo.24If he promisesto fund lobotomy Cukrowicz Catharine, Dr. Violet the she will perform on promises the setting up of the SebastianVenable Memorial clinic where he can pursue his researchfurther. So, throughout the play there is pressureon Catharineto change her version of the story; if she does this Violet will release from probate a large So, George. brother, by her Sebastian Catharine to amount of money willed and both her brother and her mother, Mrs. Holly, want her to take back what she 'babbles' about Sebastian'sdeath. Finally, under the influence of a truth serum, Catharine tells the story of Sebastian'sdeath by cannibalism at the hand of local

23 'Were-wolf' refers to a legend popular among the Gypsy in Cabeza de Lobo. This legendary to the village to claim a creature'takes the form of a beautiful virgin at each full moon and descends lover, who is allowed to lift her veil' and in the play Williams uses Cabezade Lobo as a 'fictional shield for the Barcelonascenes'(Devlin and Tischler, 2004, p.13). 24Williams mentioned that he dealt with 'cerebral Lobotomy' as 'it was a dramatic necessity' in the play. He knows about it as 'some person [he] had known well that had a cerebral Lobotomy' (Frost, p.39). Williams refers here to his sister Rose; the decision 'to have' her 'undergo a Lobotomy was completely' his mother's who 'demandedthat the Doctors cut' a story that 'at the convent school the girls use altar candlesfor self-abuse'(Rader, p.63).

90

25As her storyunfoldsit boyswho werethe sexualobjectsfor his homosexuality. becomes clear he used Catharineand his motheras devicesto attractthe young
from insists listening Upon Violet to the the memory story, on erasing men. Catharine'sbrain, while the Doctor asserts that the story might be true. The play's setting is 'as unrealistic as the d6cor of a dramatic ballet' with an interior 'blended with a fantastic garden which is more like a tropical jungle or forest' (The Theatre of TennesseeWilliams, Volume 3, p.349). With the words 'unrealistic', 'dramatic', and 'fantastic' it is not clear whether the play takes place The the the the action on the stage stage. mind of charactersor physically on within is still, linear and symbolic more than it is dynamic and realistic. However, there is is fantastic in In the the garden setting. other words a senseof evolution suggested 'more like a tropical jungle, or forest, in the prehistoric age of giant fern-forests This 349). (p. had limbs living flippers to turning to creatures and scales skin' when dramatisesthe physical spatial setting as a visualisation of the primitive impulses A in 1940-1960: human's Thomas P. Adler American Drama. psyche. within a Critical History (1994) argues similarly saying that the garden is 'internalised, representinga psychological state of mind, everyone in the play preys on or uses impulses', (Adler, 1994, 155). According 'primitive these to p. my reading, others' in fact, are related to the cycle of devouring which the charactersexperience,where by in Catharine devour devour Violet the tries to the to play other. each one wants from her lobotomy, truth the through mind erasing as she realises that after the be 'any there may not possibility, afterwards, of - reconstructing aoperation,

Williams, Volume 3, p.366).Mrs totally soundperson'(The Theatreof Tennessee Catharine Holly andGeorgeprey on the moneyof Sebastian to andthey persuade
25 by David Frostabout life', whenasked He thinksthat his playscomeout of 'everybody personal in this same 'yes,we all symbolicway', Williams answers whether'do we all live with cannibalism devoureach other,in our fashion'(Frost,p.40).

91 take back her story about him in order to gain the money 'bequeathed' by Sebastian.The Doctor is pushedby Violet to prey on Catharine in order to get the funding for his research.It is the characters' self-obsessionwhich pushesthem to this cycle of abusetowards eachother. Sebastian'slife is a fiction, since what is known about him is left in the form of conflicting truths and stories which we hear. These conflicting visions is but him true what seen of reality, rather as a representation not as a portray For is in This the the masking. act of manifested minds of each character. within in him 'Renaissance Sebastian's show a all photographs masked example, in Although ball in Venice. the Cannes and costume' and at a masked pageboy's Sebastian taken twenty years apart, remains unchanged apparently were pictures it: but looks Violet 'the not the subject' puts photographs older as and static, (p.360). The use of the word 'subject' visualises him as a piece of art where his life is is identified by his because 'the the of a poet work of a poet poetry existence is life (p. 352). So through this the the work of a versa, of a poet poet' and - vice identification with his art he adopts another kind of masking, the artistic masking through which he hides his own homosexuality. He has a senseof guilt about this identifiable self of which he gradually loses control. The guilt which Sebastian feels echoesthe guilt of the homosexualwriter 'bom in the Episcopal rectory' and Guilt Episcopal 58). 'in (Devlin, the the was p. shadow of church' up growing in 1940s for Williams the the and repressive political of atmosphere unavoidable 1950s which 'were extremely turbulent and trying decades for gay men and lesbiansin America' (Savran,p.84).26

26 in hadwitnessed As Savran the growthof a gay andlesbian subculture and 1930s notes'the 1920s the legal and ideological wereso stringentthat majorcities in the United States, prohibitions several This discursive inconceivable' 84). (Savran, was the counterpart was p. virtually antihomophobic an

92 David Savran in Communists. Cowboys. and Queers (1992) thinks that critics like the novelist Gore Vidal 'attempt to explain the contradictions in [Williarns'] writing by sketching a portrait of Williams as a self-hating

homosexual' (Savran, p.83). He criticises Vidal and other critics who seeWilliams as believing strongly that 'the homosexualistis wrong and that the heterosexualist is right' (p.83). He views Vidal's statementas implying that 'a position radically different from Williams' was possible, 'that the product of a deeply homophobic culture can somehow avoid internalizing its values' (p.84). Violet cannot understandthe homosexuality of Sebastian;it is an unacceptabletruth which she tries to hide and keep enclosed within Catharine's mind. Although Sebastian's homosexuality is implied in the play by Violet's constant referenceto his 'looks' is 'charm' 'keep 'pursuers' this she which suggests and ahead of pursuers', word very careful to avoid using the word 'chased' for fear that it may be taken as 'chaste' (The Theatre of TennesseeWilliams, Volume 3, p.361). Chastity here However, Sebastian's life'. he devoted 'a to to sexual refers chastity as was celibate he 'insisted upon good looks in people around him' and he had a little 'court of young and beautiful people' surrounding him all the time The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 3, p.359). D. A. Miller in 'Visual Pleasurein 1959' (1997) suggests that Catharine is used as a 'device for giving utteranceto the story in homosexual Sebastian, barred from the the though appearing of who, anywhere its drama, by her becomes true mainstream would-be means of recollection (Miller, p.35). Drawing on this, Sebastianfinds in her the means to protagonist' facilitate his own homosexualactivity which he cannot control until it devourshim.

caseuntil the rise of the modem gay rights movement which opposedthe intensepersecutionagainst homosexuals,with the founding of the Mattachine Society in 1951 by Henry Hay and the launching of 'ONE' in 1953, a magazinethat examined 'homosexuality from the scientific, historical and critical (see Savran,p. 85). of view' point

93 by the very act of cannibalism This is symbolised which parallelshis metaphorical devouring by his desire. or consuming
Here the act of cannibalism can be viewed as the inevitable culmination of (or punishment for) homosexualdesirein Williams' works. Parallels in be 'Desire and the Black Masseur' where Anthony Bums like can seen Sebastian,is devoured by the objects of his desire. Annette Saddik in 'The (Un) RepresentedFragmentation of the Body in TennesseeWilliams' 'Desire and the Black Masseur' and Suddenly Last Summer' (1998) views it as 'a commentary on the nature of homosexual relationships in society' (Saddik, 1998, p.2). Williams' concern according to my reading is not with using Sebastianas a representativeof all homosexualsin the 1950s(or even as a parallel to his own homosexuality), but with exemplifying through him the image of the self-consumption of the identifiable self. In other words, Sebastian'sbody representsthis identifiable self (his homosexuality) which is unavoidably destroyed as a result of the self's unbridled desire to satisfy itself. So by being consumed with desire, the 27 is death is for his desire. the consequence which punishment expressing With the act of cannibalism (the image of death) is describedthrough the dialogue, a heavenly implication is suggested.For Saddik, there is something actually inhuman in this act being shown in a Broadway play. She argues: [Williams'] polysexual content is at its most explicit and straightforward in this story [Tesire and the Black Masseur'] since this type of narrative genre is less public than drama, and would better allow for the expression of subject matter such as cannibalism and homoerotic
27It is the very fate which Williams' earlier characterspre-Last Summer try to escape,and yet it further entrapsthem (as previously discussedin relation to Streetcar -

94
sadomasochism,especially in the repressive atmosphereof the 1940s

1950s. Over later, however,Williams choseto pushthe ten and years boundaries of sordidness and perversion,for which he had by then
becomeknown, by presenting Suddenly Last Summer off-Broadway in 1958.In Us play we get one of his most violent endingsas the audience listens to Catharine tell what both she and Violet Venable call a "hideous story" of her son Sebastianbeing physically devoured by the

young boys whom he had "consumed"sexually at Cabezade Lobo

(Saddik, 1998,pA my emphasis). This 'hideous story' of Sebastian'sdeath maintains his heaven-like aspectwhich is in fact the that his dead body is absentas it was devoured before the play explicit began. Andrew Sofer in 'Self-consuming Artifacts: Power, Performanceand even the Body in Suddenly Last Summer' (1995) reads this in relation to Sebastian's identity in the play which is shrouded with 'a series of masks and performances,

right downto his fastidious costume of white silk suits' andhis mother'sreferences 'to his life as a legendwhich Catharineis [smashing]with her tongue' (Sofer,
p.26). This view correspondswith my reading of the play which questions the statusof Sebastianas symbolic rather than as a concrete and realistic character.In this sense,he symbolisesthe vision of truth in the mind of Violet. This is explicit in her 'ritualistic invocation' of his name: 'my son, Sebastian''my truth-not the truth' (The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 3, p.352: my emphasis).With the use

linguistic markers, Violet both constructsthis vision of of these possessive it to maintainits continuity.For instance, Sebastian anddefends shemakesclearto
the Doctor that Catharine's truth is just 'a hideous attack' on her son's moral

95 'which being dead,he can't defendhimself from' and shehasto be the character defender(p.361). There is somethingartificial about this truth, in the way she her dayswith him where'eachday' they would 'carveout' is 'like a 'constructed'
piece of sculpture' till they left behind them 'a trail of days like a gallery of sculpture' (p.363). There is a senseof stillness suggestedin the word 'sculpture', days things and where are designedand do not flow spontaneously. However, Catharine's truth destroysthis stillness of Violet's God-like

idealisedimage of Sebastian, and Violet tries to silenceCatharinein order to life. Violet finds in her preventher from articulatingher version of Sebastian's
view of Sebastiana personified image of God on earth who has an ability to create and recreatethe world through his poetry: the 'Poem of Summer'. There is an air of divinity surrounding the poem which is implied in the way the act of writing is said to mirror the act of creation. Sebastianis said to write a poem each summer,as 'the is if Williams the other nine months of year were really only a preparation', as drawing a parallel betweenthe creative 'birth' of Sebastian'spoetry and the birth of

Williams, Volume3. p.354).Violet then a rebornchild (The Theatreof Tennessee but goeson to takesthe heavenlyanalogyfurther as shelikensthe poetsto priests,
say poetshave to 'look harder' for God as they 'don't have the help of such famous guidebooksand wcll-organised expeditions as priests have with their scripturesand churches' (p.357). Sebastian'scrisis of faith comes about in his last summer when the pagesof his 'Foxhill! The Blue Jay notebook' which he 'used for making notes

andrevisionson his Poemof Summer',turn 'blank' (p.407). He startsto lose his ability to createafter he seesthe horrific eventswhich he cannotrelate to the beautyof the art of creation.At that point he startsto lose his identity as an artist identifies him asa person. which

96 The eventswhich so horrify him are when he seesthe cruel face of God on the beachin the 'terrible Encantadas'. lie visualises God in the imageof turning the 'flcsh-catingbirds' attackingand diving on the 'hatchedsea-turtles, their soft undersides, themover to expose tearingthe undersides openandrending flesh' (ne Theatreof Tennessee William2, Volume 3, p.356). their and cating 'spent that whole blazing equatorialday in the crow's nest of the Sebastian him to (p.357).The 'blazing"light of the day enables this scene watching" schooner makesit too difficult for him to sec.lie left the 'crow's watchGod,while darkness it 'too dark to see'andhe sailedwith Violet 'north the nestof schooner' when %N-as by castinto coolerwatcrs' (p.357).I lis act of sailingis relatedto the remoteness of hasto go 'looking for God' and for 'a clear imageof the space whereSebastian Him' (p.357). llo%%-c%, using cr, this is not to imply that Last Summer still operates Menagerie the same personified patternof Godwhich dominates and Strcctca, but of the God-like image into an abstractvision. rather it marks a development Ilowc%, cr, it is relatedto the vision of the self which is projectedon Him. This is full imageof God is a reflection of Sebastian's of the own self-imagewhich in Catharine's horror of scif-consumption. This is suggested wordswhen shesays that somebody'said once or wrote, once: "we're all of us children in a vast kindergarten " CLh. trying to spell God's namewith the wrong alphabetblocks! Q Tlientrcof Tennessee Willinms, Volume3, p.375).The word 'children' impliesthe imageof God as a father figure who observes and watchesthe way his children is one differ in how they spell His nameand perceiveHis almightiness. Sebastian God's 'children' who The horrible image he saw in of spells name %vrongly. Encantadas controlshis vision of Goduntil he becomes obsessed with the dark side for P. Adler in 'The Search of God which he graduallyprojectson others.Thomas God in the Playsof Tennessee Williams' (1977) positsthis idea as he perceives

97 in (along Shannon Williams' T. La%%Tcnce Sebastian three one characters with as of in Kingdom of Earth (1961) and Chicken Ravcnstock The NiCht of the Igiian-a Two and Threeof this thesis)who arc so obsessed (1968) (exploredin Chapters and in thosearoundthemthat they transferthis evil to with 'the evil in themselves God, creating a God devoid of any goodness or love' (Stanton,p.141). lie lives a 'predatorylife', andmistakenly: that Sebastian elaborates hideous his God a cruel who created a world vision with equates savage heremenattacktheir Mlowmen. Instead of enteringinto communion %%, it in,., flow love, Sebastian turning the of crts normal with other pcopic, back in upon himself until he finally sacrificeshimsclf to his personal imageof Godthe devourer (Stanton, p.141).
I lis mother, Violct contributes to this equation by pushing him constantly into the him. it devours destroys When Sebastiantries and circle of sclf-consumption until Easterntheology and giving up 'the world and himself to free himself by follo%ving him Gk Violet his to their stops possession mendicant order' worldly and all Thentrc of TcnncssecWilliam , Volume 3, p.358). Under her influence, in less than

'and his Eastern for he travel to their theology them and resume gives up a month

from thenon' they 'still lived in a- world of light and shadow'(p.358).However, Violet asserts that the word 'shadow'doesnot imply darkness as it is 'as luminous is image Sebastian light' (p. 358). This to the shadow which shetries to related of as kccp lit in orderto maintainits idealiscd nature. idcaliscd 'babbling', however,threatens Catharine's this perceived constant Catharine tries to vcrbaliseher knowledgeaboutSebastian truth aboutSebastian. by exposing demise the truth abouthis death.On her sideViolet wantsthis -tision

98 lockedup in St. Mary's, because 'to keepstill' in Catharine's Catharine mind, %vith her spatialstillness%%ill the truth in her mind. Violet setsout to do this by enclose is in Saint Mary's where her Catharine sure under constantsupervision making by aremonitored SisterFelicity,andwhereher physicalmovements are movements
by holding Felicity's her of arm (p.371). Catharine's disobedience rcstraincd through resistancewill only lead to her being put 'right back on the violent ward' (p.372). This institutionalised 'violent ward' represents a means to restrain Catharine's violence which is viewed as a form of resistance to the physical stillnessViolct seeks. 11iis stillness is dictated to Catharineby the Sister's orders in SceneTwo: Williams, Volume 3, p.373). The 'sit do%%m and be still' (Ibe Theatre of Tennessee seating position implied %vithinthese orders maintains Catharine's entrapment as insanity. NVlicn she rises from the wicker chair in the same scene advancing towards tit Doctor, Sister Hicity doW adopts a 'restraining gesture' telling her to 'sit

(p.374). When Catharine adopts a rising position, she starts talking about

Sebastian,and by doing so she starts liberating her confined vision of truth. Rising in SceneTwo she tells the Sister that she 'loved him [Sebastian]' and shewonders

6why wouldn't lie' let her 'save him', and this is followed immediatelyby the Sister'sordersfor Catharine to 'sit down' (p.374). The sameseatingposition is by Violet in Scene Four in the gardenwhereCatharine maintained asksher 'Can I move?Can I get up and move aroundtill it startsT (p.386). When she moves downstage 'back sheis 'followed quickly by SisterFelicity' and sheis conducted in the gardenas to the patio' (p.387). Shealso fecls the samespatialentrapment by Sister cr sherisesor rushes out; her physicalmovements wlicnc%, are restrained Fclicity.

99 Unlike Violct's garden,Catharinedoes not view Saint Mary as a from "sweet, 'get that talks trying to sweet she of a message out when sweetplace, is in fact Volume 3, 388). Williams fflie Theatre Tennessee Williams, of p. place"' in This Polish. Cukro%vicz, 'sugar' Doctor's the name, w1fich means playing on her is Catharine's to to ability voice entrappedvision on related s%N-cctncss from her fearto be committed Sebastian to the asylum.An to the Doctor,generated IT him 'IS in be Scene Two this and shouts: can seen when shesees of example her shouting 1' (p.374).The block capitalssuggest LION'S VIEW? DOCTOR? asa is followed by her institutional ised. idea being This the words of way of resisting by Sebastian the Sister'sorders.In the samescenewhen silenced which are about bay 'letting Doctor Catharine the the the towards withdraws advances vvindow, him' (p.374). This obscuritywhich down to obscure misty white gauzecurtain hide behind his being blond him is 'too to window contrasted with surrounds These light' 375). 'shines (p. he 'catches them' through the words and curtains'as by healer Catharine image Doctor the the as a who may enlighten of suggest it her bringing light. from to the truth mind and releasing In SceneOne the doctor is the one who Mrs Venablefccls she can Williams,Volume3, p.350).Herethe position 'Ican on' (Thc Theitre of Tennessee Violet for dependency his kindness. However, leaning tries the on suggests need of to pushhim into the circle of scif-consumption which shecontrolsassheknowsall on her. She exerts this control by referring of them arc financially dependent VenableMemorialFoundation', implicitly to her interestin fundingthe 'Sebastian lobotomy Catharine. For it is dependent his the example, on on performing making when lie questionsthe operation,she remindshim that 'we [are] always more is to in a thing that concerns interested us personally'(p.367). Herethe reference

100

her offer as'sort the sclf %%ith which he shouldbe consumed ratherthaninterpreting of bribe' (p.368).
Nevertheless,contrary to Violet's expectations,as the play unfolds the Doctor tries to breakaway from her circle of self-absorptionby adopting the role of the catalyst that helps to free Catharine gradually from her entrapment.First, in Scene Four he frees her physically by grasping her 'clbow and [leading] her out forestage' (The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 3,398). The very act upon of 'leading' maintains this image of the catalyst that she will follow in order to be ftcc from entrapment,which offers a stark contrast to the Sister's constant act of 'pushing' Catharineto be still. This is visualiscd by his requestto surrenderto him by giving up 'all' her 'resistance' to tell the truth. Ile achievesthis by hypnotising her after giving her the injection, and also by 'holding' his hand out. Ile 'Auntsher through thesetwo tactics to 'put' her handsin his and 'pass' of her resistance out of her hand into his (p.402), a physical contact will enableher to voice the unspoken her babblings into to change unstable and a coherentverbalisation of her vision of the truth.

%Vhcn Catharine in askedthe Doctor: 'can I standup', shesucceeds standingup, although'unsteadily' after he tells her to 'standup' (]Ic Theatreo Tennessee WHliams,Volume 3, p.403). The Doctor's words urge her to make which can free her from her spatial stillness.The Doctor physical movements that the momentsheis free of her physicalstillness,shewill be liberated rcalises from her scif-crttrapnicnt. By standing up, shefccls 'dizzy' and shecalls out 'help her' and'holds her' (p.403).By holdingher,sherealiscs to support me'. Ile 'rushes her needfor someone to rely on, as she still needsthe physicalsupport.So, she her mouth to his 'violently', clutchinghis 'holds him tight againsttier', crushes

101

body againsther (p.403). Throughher physicalitytowardshim, sheprojectsher

violence onto him as the words 'tight', 'crushes', 'violently' 'fiercely' and

(p.403). By doing so, shetransfers &clutching' to the to him her resistance suggcst truth. her action here is not readby him as a sexualadvance, Nonetheless, but rathera 'little' unsteadiness. This unsteadiness resultsfrom theconflict between in her mind, andthe exteriorvision of truth. The first the truth which is cntmpped
is her breakfrom for Catharine to this to physical a%vay conflict control stcp movements%vithinthe space,and the Doctor helps her achieve that. For example, her, jungle Sister Felicity 'dazzling tries to to the the restrain of garden", going howcver she is stoppedby the Doctor: 'you're not responsiblefor her' (p.404). Her free spatial movement helps Catharine gradually to respondto the Doctor's orders

by wiling thc 'truc story' (p.405). By telling the story Catharine startsto be liberatedfrom her violence. This is visualiscdby the 'clcar and sweet' 'bird song' which replaces the 'raucous in the gardcn'andoverlaps the play (p.405).So, with her wordsthroughout sounds
instead her of the dashes and the pauses,the Doctor starts to words unfold as

complete Catharine's sentences.This is symbolised verbally with their For example,Catharinetells the Doctor that 'I mean from the conversation. from fa-fash-'. between Ending the the to the and aflernoons urith pauses evenings incomplete Is that the word you-T word la-fash-', the Doctorreplies'fashionable! 409-10). Her 'yes' answerimplies that the Doctor has startedto recognise (pp. Catharinc's idcntity which starts to break-away from its entrapmentand be him. to and rcadabic cxtcrnaliscd

102 By telling the truth about Sebastian's death,Catharineliberatesher by the useof the light; 'the light changes insane on the stage self.T'hisis visualiscd on her while 'the other figures as' shegets 'deeperinto her story' concentrating into (p. 41 1). When Sebastian, Catharine telling the truth starts about shadow' sink to confront the truth about her self, It is her self-imageof being 'dropped' by peoplelike a 'hot, rock' after beingused(p.392).This 'dropped'self is a rejected datingbackto her encounter with a married self from the socialsetof New Orleans, man shemet in front of the Mardi Grasballroom,who droveher to 'the Duelling Oaks' wherethey both 'walked throughthe wet grassto the greatmisty oaks' and (p.398).However,after he told her that they should'better hada sexualencounter forget it' ashis '%Nife's the house andsatthere expecting a child', she'just entered thinking a little' and suddenlyshe'called a taxi and went right back' to the Hotel by beatingthe drunk ballroom.Sheprojectsher anxietyof beingusedandrejected by in image her dropped ballroom. 'rock' She the the self as of a guy resists her in face him hard' her fists She Sebastian 'beats takes the as with until violence. away(p.399). just follows Asked by Sebastian to 'get up' on that day, Catharine dead: his feel 'if him. Catharine to command after she starts symbolically accepts dying, well then, you're obedient' (p.398). However, you're still alive a(Icr him, she starts to feel entrapped travelling %Nith more and more with the same 'dropped' self-image,building the feeling of being 'stuck so often' (p.400). She is kindness his he her 'appreciate to, than to until she more %vanted' starts for him' (p.412). Sheresponds 'too much to his kindness'by 'taking 6procuring hold of his hand before he'd take hold of [hers], of holding onto his arm and leaningon his shoulder'(p.406).This comesfrom her needto liberateher self and

103 by holdingon to Sebastian's kindness. However,in fact, this regainher self-esteem her from herself, - shebeginswriting her diary in the third person and only alienates s Sebastian keepingup her 'third-personal journal' (p.413)? fails to help Catharine defeatthis fccling of alienationbecause he is scif-obsessed. in the This canbe seen way he projectsthe cruel imageof God which he sawin the 'terrible Encantadas'
onto othcrs as wcll as himsclf. This cvcnt conjurcs up an imagc of sacrificial

violence in his mind. David CharlesCameronMathew in 'The Ritual of Selfin the Dramaof Tennessee Assassination Williams' (1974)agrees urith this view as he thinksthat 'it mustbe a sacrificewhich couldliterally incorporate the divinity in
[Sebastian];that is, by rc-enacting the bloody ritual, he could make himself a part in the the scnsation of bcing the dying god' (MathcNv, of mydi, or participatc

to my readingthe imageof Sebastian p.182).This suggests according asa sacrifice as a way to purify his self throughconsumption of his flesh. Within his flesh lies his guilt ftom which lie wantsto be ftce. Sebastian that his self-obsession realises startsto consumehim. This is embodiedby him physically aging; his physical in the heartwherehe 'had rheumatic fevcr' which 'affecteda heart-valve' sickness (TheTheatre Willinm Volume3, p.353). of Tcnncss2c , Symbolically,the day when Sebastian dies was one of those"white blazing days in Cabczadc Lobo, not a blazing hot blue one' (lie Theatreo3f W'lliams, Volume 3, p.414). Like the weather,Sebastian in white Tennessee NN-as with 'a spotless white silk shantung suit and a white silk tie and a white pan=a ' (p.414: my emphasis). With andwhitc shoes, white - white lizard skin - pumps! the colour 'white' thereis an imageof purity which contrasts the bandof the %Ath
"JacquelineO'ConnorDramatizing ementia: in the Playsof Tennessee (1997) Madness Welliarns readsthis as 'a feeling of separationfrom the self, a common symptomof schizophrenia' (O'Connor,1997, p.54).

104 'naked black hungry' children who followed him. The words 'black' and 'hungry' parallel the image of savageryin nature as the sun looks like 'a great white bone 29 fire in had (p. 421: beast the sky' that my emphasis). caught on off a giant Gradually the voice of the children develops from 'crying out' for bread making 'gobbling noiseswith their little black mouths' into serenadingon 'instruments of is (p. 417). There 'tin together' violence and savagery cans strung percussion' and 'pulled in instruments They their the their sound. of and metallic voice suggested (P. 418). forth, 'Ooompa' down, back to noise and make a sort of' up and Witnessing that, Catharine 'ran down' screaming 'Help'. Here the direction is important and standsin contrast to the upper direction which Sebastianfollows by instead hill. In the of escapingdown to the 'waterfront' or other words, climbing the 'docks down there at the bottom of the hill', he climbs up the 'steep white street' to the white hill towards the children (p.421). His spatial movement suggests that Sebastianviews in these children the face of God, and he wants to sacrifice himself to Him. Sebastian'screamedjust once' before this 'flock black plucked little birds' overtook him halfway up the white hill and devoured him just as the flesh-eating birds did to the hatched eggs (p.421). So, according to this vision the truth about Sebastian'sdeath is that he was 'torn', 'cut' 'stuffed' into the hungry boys' 'gobbling fierce little empty black mouths' (p.422). By tearing him off, 'there left 'what was of him' a 'big white-paper-wrapped wasn't a sound any more': bunch of red roses had been torn, thrown, crushed! - against that blazing white

29There is no racial issue suggestedin Williams' use of the word black to describethe savageryof the nature as well as the colour of the children who devour Sebastian.The blacknesshere is related to the dark cruel face of God which is a reflection of the darknessof Sebastian'sown self-image, full of the horror of self-consumption.Moreover, the savageryand the blacknessof the children are in hatched Encantadas, image flesh-eating birds devour the the to the eggs of which parallel recalled and which 'made the sky almost as black as the beach'. This parallel is clear in Catharine's words when shedescribesthe black children as 'flock black plucked little birds' (p.421). Williams doesnot explicitly handle race issuesuntil the 1960swith Kingdom of Earth (1968) when he starts dealing with race as a sign of self-confinement through the character of Chicken, as Chapter Three of this thesiswill discuss.

105 between him (p. 422). The blazing the parallel and weather and the white wall wall' image an of purification and elevation through this act of cannibalism. suggests Upon hearing Catharine's story Violet 'springs with amazing power from her wheelchair' to hush and still Catharine. She strikes her with her cane to object to 'this hideous story out of her brain' (p.423). The Doctor, however, stops her by snatchingthe cane and leading her towards the exit. For the first time in the By is fall' (p. 423). Violet 'about the to staged as unstable within spaceand play, in from her Doctor Violet truth the the spatially, stops repressing stilling Catharine's mind. He helps Catharine by the end of the play to exposethe truth death. Out Catharine's Sebastian's this self-liberation which, at the of comes about in So, helps her freely the the she space. exterior physical end of play, move 'wanders out into the garden' followed by the Sister, but not restrained by her (p.423: my emphasis). The Doctor's open-ended statement after he looks (reflectively into space', that 'the girl's story could be true' symbolisesCatharine's by judged be in liberating her by truth the can which now self voicing success it is liberated imply is (p. 423). This to the that self when others and acceptedor not is subjected to conflict with the exterior space.By breaking away from the self, Last Summer leads us into the conflict between the self and the exterior space focus Night be following The Williams' the the of main of chapter, on which will the lauan as a pivotal point in the developmentof Williams' minority issues.

106 CHAPTER 11

Poster designed by the author to illustrate the concept of spatial reversal in The Night of the Iguana (1961), and awarded the prize for Best Poster-Presentation:
Business, Social Science and Arts Postgraduate Research in 2006. at the University of Leicester Festival of

107

CHAPTERII,

PARTI

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA: BETWEEN FICTION AND DRAMA

As the main concern of my thesis is the developmentof the minority concept from the identity of a particular group towards an experience of marginality over the

Williams' career- from the mid-1940suntil the end of the courseof Tennessee
1970s- this middle section of the thesis will focus exclusively on The Night of the Iguana (1961) with its three developmentaldrafts as a pivotal text in his portrayal issues. is It significant that the play went through a number of versions; of minority the short story version of 'The Night of the Iguana' (1948) was revised into a oneact play written for the Spoleto festival of 1959, followed by the three-act play of
1961. These drafts signal Williams' transitional phase regarding the use of 1

language, space and characters to convey minority issues as an experience of marginality.

Awarded the Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1962, many critics claim that Williams laid one of his 'dozen golden eggs' when he wrote his 1961play The Niaht of the lauan This view suggeststhat Iguan is the last major successin . Williams' career, after which his volume of work gradually declined after the mid1960s.Certainly, the play did not repeatthe critical and commercial successof his

The GlassMenagerie NamedDesire.However, playsof the 1940s, andA Streetcar this sectionof the thesiswill attemptto demonstrate that the play canbe readas a
pivotal point in the development of minority issuesin Williams' work, operating less in terms of an identifiable minority group and more explicitly in terms of the

108 experienceof marginality itself. In this senseit provides a means of identifying a transitional phasein the methodshe usesto highlight minority questions,from the emphasison characterizationin his early plays to his interest in language,setting, stagecraftand structurein his later plays. The peculiarity of Iguan lies in Williams' use of certain visual techniqueswithin the play that tries to externalise and project the confinement of the charactersonto the stage itself. I will argue that, unlike Williams' early plays, the representation of minorities in Iguan operates through the interrelation

between characterizationand how the play is set up spatially. My view is that in Iguana Williams' theatricality shifts the concept of the minority from an abstract viewpoint to a real human experienceof marginality which is fully developed in Williams' later plays as Chapter Three of the thesis will demonstrate.In Suddenly

Last Summer the characters start to move away from the self by projectingtheir
self-entrapmentonto the exterior space,symbolised by the liberation of Catharine Holly's vision of the truth of Sebastian'sdeath by the end of the play. This shifts the question of minority onto an experienceof marginality. Iguan develops this shift gradually in its three developmentaldrafts to function as a transitional stage that links Williams' early and later plays. To illustrate further, with Williams' early plays there is a focus on the

'self' within which the characters This 'self' is defined in the are entrapped.
following reading of Iguana - especially in the 1961 version - as 'the interior later space', witnessed as a conflict existing between the 'interior space' and 'the
30The exterior space'. main concern in this chapter will be tracing the development

30 The two concepts,the 'interior space' and the 'exterior space' will be fully defined and introduced in the third part of this chapter.Using thesetwo terms have been inspired by my reading of Thomas

109 find it incredibly difficult the to accomplish this conflict where characters of reconciliation.
This chapter will focus on the minority issue in Iguan 's three developmentaldrafts, due to the peculiar position of the play as marking the midfinal in is judge Williams' difficult by It Iguana the to career. merely reading point 1961three-actversion, as Williams incorporatesmaterial from the one-actplay into the final version, as well as including some aspects from the early short story. Discussingthe final 1961 Iguan version is not sufficient in itself, as this discussion requiresunderstandingof the developmentfrom fiction to drama. The differences between the story version and the two play versions reside in the relation betweenthe representationof minorities and generic issuesof literary form. By discussingthe concept of minority in the 1948 short story I will in demonstrate to that the the seek story pivots around characters' sexual anxieties relation to body and space. I will argue that the major charactersare unable to

in them thus tremendous placing conflict with eachother. achievereconciliation,

This will establish the minority issue as a character-basedconcept and a continuation of Williams' earlier dramatic concerns.In this sense,the Iguan short story does not constitute a real departure from the early plays regarding the structureby which the minority question is framed. I will follow this discussion by focusing on the early one-act play

of the minority concept of versionto identify the development onto an experience

marginality in its initial stages.A more chaotic setting is presentedin the one-act

in in While the the shortstory the which complicates versionpresented story. play
Postlewait 'Spatial Order and Meaning in the Theatre' (1994), however he reads the concepts of 'interior' and 'exterior' in relation to the scenic design in Williams' plays.

110

it is in the the play status operates on characters' anxiety, one-act sexual minority of the cosmopolitan projected onto a wider array of charactersas a consequence setting. This is accompaniedby a shift in historical context: the one-act version provides a clearer dramatisation of the social and political precipice of the United States of America at the beginning of the 1940s just before its involvement in World War 11.In the one-act version the absenceof God, or any other obvious figure, in both Yet to the the adds of characters. versions space anxiety authority functions as a significant factor in structuring minority issues.In the one-act play, function, in far define fundamentally the experienceof to serves as a so as place minority in its theatrical stagingthan in the narrative form of the short story.

III

CHAPTER H, PART 11

THE SHORT STORY VERSION OF 'THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA' (1948)

The short story 'The Night of the Iguana' was included in the One Arm and Other Stories collection, originally published in 1948 and reprinted in 1954. Signi Falk in TennesseeWilliams (1978) views this collection as a reflection of Williams' 'wandering years through sordid rooming houses, on city streets, and on the derelicts hide' Williams (Falk, 25). In this collection, obscure comers where p. indicates his sympathy for the unfortunate, his 'fascination for the macabre', and in he 'his own systemof values as rejects workers favour of ne'er-do-wells presents in both (Falk, 26). Written the midto the and seems prefer vagrant of sexes' p. 1940s when Williams was still a younger and less experiencedwriter, the short story version seemsexplicitly autobiographical. It is literally based on Williams' experiencesin 1940 at the Hotel Costa Verde outside Acapulco. He had fled to Mexico, as recorded in his Memoirs (2006), to forget the loss of his lover, Kip 31 Keman. The short story revives this biographical material and is closer to Williams' actual experiencethan the two later versions of Iguan It is a text reliant . in his draws his Williams' that autobiography on on experience vivid memory of

31Williams writes of this incident in his Memoirs: 'Back from that little excursionto the situation on the honeymoon trip to Mexico, August 1940. We had checked into a motel in Monterrey. I had settleddown in a small, hot bedroom with a book on a bed enclosedby mosquito netting when there camerap at the door; it was the bride ... later I was at the Hotel CostaVerde over the rain forest and the still-water beachwhich were the off-stage background for The Night of the Iguana The summer much of Mexico was overrun by Nazi Germans.A party of them arrived at the CostaVerde,jubilant over the fine-bombing of London which was then in progress ... it was there in Acapulco that summerthat I first met Janeand Paul Bowles ... we lay in adjoining hammocksalong the sleepingverandah,drinking rum-coco and talking until the numbered cubicles were cool enoughto enter for sleep ... and someMexican boys did catch an iguana and tie it up under the verandah,to be fattened for eating- but nobody cut it loose' (Memoirs pp.57-59).

112

Mexico, in addition to the homosexual relationshipthat existsbetweenthe two

writers in the story which echoes Williams' physical and emotional relationship

32 his Frank Merlo. secretary, with

On a basic level the charactersare seento be direct representations of Williams' family members.For instance,the older writer is much like Williams in his 'strongly social kind of writing', while the physical desire shown towards the younger writer echoes Williams' lust for Merlo as 'his anchor' (Vidal, p.xxv).

Moreover,Miss Edith Jelkesseems to be a versionof Williams' sister,Rose, whose for muchof her adultlife. delicateemotional stateled to her beinginstitutionalised
The story opens with a description of the setting; 'the long South verandahof the Costa Verde hotel' that is owned by the Patrona,whose character 229). Collected Stories, Tennessee Williams throughout the p. story remains vague The hotel is positioned on a cliff near Acapulco, with a hammock slung outside the by door bedrooms. Three the ten these occupied, one screen of eachof of rooms are is from looking Edith Jelkes, Mississippi 'unearthly' teacher who an art named travelling to recover from a breakdown and has 'given up her teaching position for a life of refined vagrancy', and two by homosexual American writers (p.229). During the story Miss Jelkes makes friendly advancesto the two writers, but also intrudes on their close relationship. She seekstheir aid in freeing a captive iguana tied beneathher bedroom that emits scuffling noisesmaking it impossible for her to intrusive her her However, the suspicion of and sleep. writers' relationship behaviour merely provokes the older writer to assault her sexually, when he

the olderwriter on her duringa tropicalstorm.In this particularepisode, ejaculates

32Williams did not publicly declare his homosexuality until 1970 as evidencedon the 'David Frost Show'.

113 been her loneliness; have helpsMiss Jelkes to overcome to curedas which appears by the freeingof the iguana. symbolised
In my reading of the short story, the minority question is linked closely to the sexual anxieties that alienate these three characters.These anxieties hand, On Miss Edith Jelkes' sexual anxiety appearsto stem two-fold. the one are from her contradictory inheritance.As the descendant and of oversexeddegenerates Williams 'squeamish old ladies', she is caught between two extremes (Tennessee Collected Stories, p.229). Her sexual anxiety is the symptom of her status as a is despair, frustration leading loneliness. Secondly, there to minority character, and the sexual anxiety of the two homosexual writers. Interestingly, this anxiety is body, in the to the to the text's correlated narrative space relation representationof in by the significance relation to the metaphorical of physical space and reinforced depiction of minorities in the short story. In this way, an interrelation operates betweenthe characterizationof minorities and the way the story is set up spatially. In the short story version, various spatial dimensions are applied in descriptionsof the hotel's verandah: 'the South verandah', 'the writers' end of the long verandah', the 'hammock', 'the front' and 'the back' of the verandah. In order to explore the connectionsbetweensexualanxiety, bodies and following discussion be devoted the to decoding the narrative text, will space, in the setting relation to the characters.Within this reading of spatial specifically Williams' use of space,I will frame the short story in relation to other themessuch as masculinity, the body and violence, as a starting point for developing my discussionof minority issuesin the three versionsof Iguan .

114
Williams' 1948 short story 'The Night of the Iguana' portrays the characters'sexualanxieties,particularly the neurotic Miss Jelkes' experienceof her latent sensualityand the sexualanxiety of the two homosexualwriters. The crux of the minority question resides in the conflict between Miss Jelkes and the two writers. Herein lies the origin of one of Williams' most common themes:the clash 33 innocence of and nostalgic gentility with crassness and ruthlesspower. The two writers at the Hotel can be read to representwhat the critic Signi Falk calls Williams' 'desperateheroes'.34These feature in most of his plays from the 1940s and 1950s, and live 'uncommitted to the mores of conventional' America (Falk, p.92). Retreating to a verandah in Acapulco, the two writers are depicted as 'sex-starved', becauseof their homosexuality. Misfits within a society that prohibits homosexuality,the two writers are marginalized.The older writer has written a novel dealing with a topic of interest deemedto be sensational,which 'had caused a good deal of controversy' TennesseeWilliams Collected Stories from 233). This the writer's radical view of America: stressing controversy stems p. its dynamism and the possibility of sexualfreedom. On the other hand, the younger writer witnessesthe political history of America is a record of suffering, loss, war and conflict which have exacteda physical, spiritual, and psychological toll on him. in In this sense,the two writers are examplesof a rising new radical consciousness America following World War 11, still confused about whether their radical

thoughtsand actionscan be reconciledwith conventionalAmericanvalues.As from late Distinct 1940s. the frustratedgeneration the the such,they represent of
33Miss Jelkes recalls with her 'Southern family' background the characterof Blanche in alLeetcar, however here the conflict of Miss Jelkestranscendsself-confinement,as this part of the chapterwill discuss. 34For Signi Falk, Williams' 'desperateheroes' stand alone 'above the average,money-mad, sexstarved, and unhappy jobholder' who are 'lonely misfit in an artificial society' and usually victims of 'stereotyped figures who represent Business, the Law, the Church, or Goodness' (Falk, p.92). However, the reading of the two writers in this part of the chapter goes further than Falk's description.

115 traditionalmorality of the 'Old South',the two writershaveno attachment with the
have family is left they the no names older writer's name unspecified, while past; the younger writer is simply called Mike - and a hostile attitude towards their past

memories.
The characterizationof the two writers is usedby Williams as a tool to shape the concept of masculinity in the story. The masculine body becomes a

in the eyesof Miss Jelkes, spectacle who forms a 'habit of dartingtowardthe two
men as they did toward what she was painting' (TennesseeWilliams Collected Stories, p.23 1). Here Williams shows the male body not only as sexually attractive in the flesh, but also as an object of lust. This can be seenas an echo of Williams' own sexual preferences,but, perhapsbecauseof the taboo nature of homosexuality at the time, he choosesto filter the depiction through the eyes of Miss Jelkesrather

himselL Miss Jelkesappreciates the than a narratorthat more closely resembles

male body of the younger writer, describing him as 'massively constructed': 'his torso was burned resembling the colour of an old penny and its emphatic gender till it shone like still further exclaimed by luxuriant patterns of hair, sunbleached massesof crisped and frizzed golden wire' (p.234). The two writers identify their male bodies with parts of the verandah. For example, there is a freedom in the movementsof the men in the narrative, the younger writer moving with disregardfor propriety: 'he would get in and out of his colourful napkin as if he were standing in a private cabana' (p.234). However, the body be in female its to to than the appears more comfortable male relation space body. This freedom is depicted in the image of the two nude writers on the beach, habit in their their rooms. of remaining naked and

116 However, spaceis used to embody the writers' alienation that results from their homosexuality. The writers' alienation is visualised spatially by their being positioned at one 'end of the verandah' TennesseeWilliams Collected Stories, p.235), which representstheir spatial territory. The writers' rooms are located in this territory where they usually hold their 'whispered consultation' and drink rum-coco in their hammocks (p.235). With its adjoining bedrooms,this space be barriers. the territory: as writers' with no spatial can read representing open and It is the territory of nudity and sexuality. Violence and physical power are used as tactics to guard this territory. The narrative tension revolves around a territorial dispute over the writers' space. This dispute originates from the tension between the writers and Miss Jelkes, and is closely related to Miss Jelkes' sexual anxiety. The descendant image degenerates ladies', 'squeamish the to of of oversexed and old she conforms a 'Southern gentlewoman' who represents'the culture and the gentility, sometimes during the decadeof World War I' (Falk, p.47). Miss rather seedy,that disappeared Jelkes' Southern identity is apparent in her 'wistful blond prettiness' that reflects her whiteness(p.229). Becauseof her 'extremely fair skin, it had been Miss Jelkes' from in detract bathe late to to the only early morning so as or afternoon', practice the full glare of the sun (p.232). Miss Jelkes feels sexually anxious about the older writer. She is fascinatedby him while disgustedat the younger writer's nudity. Her 'squeamish distaste' towards the 'sculptural grandeur' of his naked body leads her to complain to the Patrona 'to enquire if the younger gentleman could not be persuadedto changeclothes in his room or, if this was too much to ask of him, that he might at least keep the dorsal side of his nudity toward the beach' TennesseeWilliams

117
Collected Stories, p.234). Yet, Miss Jelkes is also anxious to know the sexuality of the two writers. Their homosexuality is not made explicit at first, being the subject of sexual connotations. For example, they lock 'their hands together' and lie 'in silence until the incoming tide was lapping over their bodies' (p.233). Appreciating the pleasureof the sexual act, they are left 'apparently in good humour' and make 'racing dives in the water' (p.233). Perhapsshe can find in their actions no direct reference to sexuality, Miss Jelkes becomes obsessedwith the two men; they representa mystery which tantalises. Moreover, the expressionof her sexual anxiety extendsto the use of phallic symbols such as the iguana and the radio. On a very basic level, in the short story the iguana and its entrapmentbeneathher room symbolise Miss Jelkes' sexual anxiety and her imprisonment within her own unfulfilled sexuality is given a spatial orientation. Miss Jelkes does not complain about the iguana being tied; only that it is tied under her room. She suggeststhat if it is not set free, it should at least be taken to some other place. Furthermore, the noises emanating from the iguana suggestthat it is in agony, reinforcing her senseof anxiety. In fact, her sensitivity towards sounds is also significant. She complains to the Patrona that the writers' is loudly 'too portable radio played and too long'; that it keepsher awake at night, echoing her complaint about the iguana's scuffling beneathher window (p.23 1).

The sounds to be linked emittingfrom the radio andiguanaboth seem by the noise of the iguanaas if her virginity is to her sexuality.Sheis annoyed by this sound.Shetells the two writersthat it is an 'outrageous threatened thing to hitch a lizard beneath her to sleepwith that noisegoing a woman's doorandexpect Williams CollectedStories,p.237: my emphasis). The use on all night' (jennessee 'woman' here the the lizard as male,utteringseductive word engenders of sounds

118 impossiblefor her to that threatenMiss Jelkes' sexualpurity. Thus, it becomes lizard's 'end 'with that to the of commotionall night' andshemoves writer's sleep the the verandah'to be put 'within close range of their nightly conversations, her for weeks' (p.239).Rushingto the endof the mysteryof which hadtantalized iguana the as an excuse,Miss Jelkesviolates their spatial verandah,and using territory. This allows her to discovertheir homosexuality, confirming 'suspicions formless had before been that the younger only a wonder' oncesherealises which in it' (p.241). 'had two people writer's room
Her suddenmovement is seenby the two writers as an invasion of the doesn't in freedom by Acapulco; the mind as she suggested story's setting spatial Stories Collected between (jennessee Williams 'all these rooms' vacant moving 'plopped in identical Miss Jelkes; 238). The to the she seem room which rooms p. herself down' has 'an identical white iron bed' to the one she left (p.239). However, in this spatial movement to the other side of the younger writer's room, Miss Jelkes is placed 'within close range'. The 'adjoining bedroom' enablesMiss Jelkes to hear 'the quality of sounds' coming from the younger writer's room (p.241). Becauseof this occupation of the 'adjoining' space, she can be seento Jelkes' Miss Contrary to two territory. the traditions the of writers' civilised violate version of the South, in this 'adjoining' territory Miss Jelkes hears unkind words that are shocking and even 'cruel' to her. Miss Jelkes' violates their spacewhich correspondsto their sexuality, and so the older writer retaliates; culminating in the violation of her body when the older writer ejaculates on her. His violent riposte embodies a defensive attitude towards his territory and sexual identity. The violent sceneof assault also reveals the older writer's masculinity through a bodily spectacle.Thus, he posits a counter-

119
bird her Miss Jelkes. Thrusting 'like to the the of challenge spatial violation of at blind white fury', he draws up the skirt of Miss Jelkes' robe 'while his other tore at the flimsy goods at her bosom'; his 'predatory fingers dug into her flesh' (Tennessee Williams Collected Stories, p.244). This violence is exactedas a result of the older writer seeingMiss Jelkes as an interloper in his territory rather than a sexual object. Meanwhile, the struggle with the older writer is symbolic of Miss Jelkes' attempt to remain identified with the well-bred cultured Southern white woman: an emblem of pure femininity and modesty. However, just as these characteristics are manifested through her struggle, Miss Jelkes adopts a surrendering attitude, described as a 'fierce little comedy of defense', which interior her contradictions. She has an ambivalent attitude towards the reflects attack: sheenjoys it even though sheis defeatedby it.

Miss Jelkes'ambivalence to the writers (shefeels both loathingand desire) is related to her emotional movementbetweenthe two facets of her inheritance. This is manifested in the way sheviews her femininity contradictory
within the spatial framework of the verandah,as visualised through her movement within the spacefrom the 'long Southernverandah' to the beachto the back of the verandah. The closer she is to the long 'Southern verandah' the more sexually reserved she becomes.Throughout the story, the 'long South verandah' protects Miss Jelkes' feminine Southern values of modesty. There she represses her femininity, unable to reconcile her sexual anxiety. By moving to the two writers' 'end of the verandah', there is a subtle shift in her self-realisation. On a spatial level, she confronts her sexuality by seeing a reflection of her loneliness in the older writer, 'whose singularity was so like her own in many essential aspects' (Tennessee Williams Collected Stories, p.243). This minimises her sense of

120 loneliness is andhelpsher to confronther sexuality.For instance, she comfortable (P. 242). enteringthe room of the youngerwriter whenhe is 'not properlydressed' Shewitnesses the older writer wearinga towel aroundhis nakedbody under'the nakedlight bulb' in the room, metaphorically reflectingher sexualinterestin the
older writer (p.234). Standing under the bulb, she confronts her sexuality but this moment also contributes to the writer's sexual assault on her. Uttering 'I do not belong here' after she escapes the attack, she cannot establish any sense of belonging in this masculine territory (p.245). Running into her room in the 'long South verandah', she symbolically runs back to the refinement of the 'Old South'. Despite this retreat, she retains an ambivalent attitude towards her own sexual identity which she discovers in the encounterwith the writers. She is pleasedwith the experienceshehas with the older writer. Before falling asleepshe: rememberedand felt again the spot of dampness,now turning cool but still adhering to the flesh of her belly as a light but persistentkiss. Her fingers approached it timidly. They expected to draw back with revulsion but were not so affected. They touched it curiously and even pityingly and did not draw back for a while TennesseeWilliams Collected Stories p.245). She considersthe 'spot of dampness'as 'a light'. The image of the light is repeated

here to reinforce the theme of illumination in the story, which standsas a

for Jelkes' Miss light In the resolution sexual anxiety. other words, metaphorical

for has the sexual confrontation she on the 'end of the verandah'.It castsa stands
light on her 'interior poise' that is represseddue to the conflict between the two parts of her contradictory inheritance. Her eventual enjoyment reinforces her

121 potential rebellion against her inherited Southernmoral restrictions, glorifying and acceptingher sensualityin spite of her spinsterishnature. Ultimately she rebuilds her relationship with her own physical body which consequently solves her anxiety. As such, the older writer's sexual assault ironically provokes her sexuality. This reconcilesher anxiety at the end of the story in spite of her ambivalence towards the writers -a is which reconciliation

visualised by the unleashing of the iguana. In this sensethe iguana can be seenas iguana's Miss Jelkes' identifies the of an embodiment sexual anxiety; she with loneliness, and so by confronting her sexuality she is freed from the 'strangling rope of loneliness', as is the iguana when it is released TennesseeWilliams
Collected Stories, p. 245). The iguana is set free by unknown forces, reinforcing its

left identification iguana is Miss Jelkes. The the symbolic with unleashing of mysterious, and parallels her ability to confront sexual anxiety. Throughout the story the iguana standsfor a phallic symbol but by the end no longer constitutes a sexualthreat to Miss Jelkes' anxiety.

In this sense Miss Jelkes represents a departure from Williams' depictions females. Southern She parallels in her Southern of previous characteristicssome of Williams' earlier characters,such as Amanda in Menagerie

Unlike these Southernwomen, however,Miss Jelkes and Blanchein Streetcar.

succeedsin freeing herself from the faded morality of the 'Old South' which has entrappedher sexuality, and through her Williams dramatisesa departure from his 35 females. departs She from her self to experiencea conflict self-confined earlier

35Williams is not interested in presenting the antebellum South but rather the South that is derived from the imagery of his childhood. So the concept of 'Old South' is related to Williams' Southern idyll of his early childhood in Mississippi Delta which ended for him when he moved to St. Louis which he called St. Pollution. Williams is identified with the virtuous myth of the South which is 'the source of its particular pathos, it had jumped the rails of history. Its psychological investment was in

122 with the exterior space by projecting on it her own sexual anxiety. Despite her misgivings, she managesto face her conflict and to reconcile it by the end of the story. This developmentis visualised by her movement within the space;whereas Williams' Southern characters are usually represented as sensitive individuals 'crippled both emotionally and physically' (Rafailovich, p. 192), Miss Jelkesis free to move physically within space,as I have arguedabove. Nevertheless, the story is deeply rooted in Williams' view of the South, concentratingthe minority issue into a conflict between Old and New South. In other words, setting the story in an exotic resort, Williams incorporates a industrialised the modem society that he detectedin the 'New South'. criticism of
36

Linked to this, in terms of setting and architecture,the story belongs to genreof the Southern Gothic. The architecture of the hotel on the cliff links to other gothic imagery in the story, such as that of the 'giant bird lunging up and down on its terrestrial quarry' (p.244). There is also the grotesque image of the iguana, described as a 'very low grade of animal life' (p.236), and whose ugliness is juxtaposed with the 'wistful blond prettiness' of Miss Jelkes (P.229). She is its in by 'scuffling there that awful dry dust, trying to reach the around out annoyed busheswith that rope twisted about its neck, making it almost impossible for it to breathe' (p.236).

the past. South became an aestheticrather than a social fact. This had certain advantages.Taste and denied be dangers the that retrained as primary virtues; as vertiginous could accompany maturity style time is frozen and reality transposedinto myth' (Bigsby, p.2000, p.47). 36Williams' conceptof the 'New South' is related to New Orleans as a liberating force of his sexuality and an inspiration for his art in its free and Bohemian spirit and its heterogeneous make up. However, Williams' portrayal of the Southernregion was not accurateand not realistic, he replied once that he but dramatist, 'what I am writing about is human nature I write about the a a sociologist not was ... South becauseI think the war between romanticism and hostility to it is very sharp there' (Holditch and Leavitt, p.33).

123 This juxtaposition does not merely contrast grotesqueimagesbut also reflects Miss Jelkes' twisted interior conflict; there is a correlation betweenthe ugly grotesque image of the iguana and her own interior sexual anxiety. Williams juxtaposes these dualities where 'the grotesque is everywhere the ugly exists ... there beside the beautiful, the deformed next to the graceful, the grotesqueon the reverseof the sublime, evil with good, darknesswith light' (Victor Hugo, 'Preface to Cromwell' (1827), p. 3, in Dorff, 1999, p.82). Williams' use of grotesque dualities is embodied by the primary characters.For example, the younger writer, Mike is describedas 'beautiful' and 'cruel', and the duality is also evident in the contrast of 'the naked light bulb' at the 'end of the verandah' with the darknessof the night. The critic Linda Dorff in 'I Prefer the "Mad" Ones: Tennessee Williams' Grotesque-Lyric Exegetical Poems' (1999) arguesthat the juxtaposition

with the beautifulestablishes of 'the grotesque an ironic sensibilitythat Williams the roots whereas refersto in stagedirectionsas "serio-comic,grotesque-lyric" ...
of Williams' grotesque-lyric form are complex and diffuse in his drama' (Dorff, 1999, p.81). This 'grotesque lyric' is displayed in the short story collection belonging to the sameera as someof the poemsof Williams which Dorff discusses. However, unlike other stories in the collection, gothic imagery is not a priority in

37By contrast, in anothershortstory in the samecollection,'Desire 1948'Iguana'. image Black Masseur', by black Anthony devoured Bums being the the the of and

37 in conversation Whenasked he considers himselfa Southern that whether writer, Williams states his 'rootsarein the South, to his statement, at leastmy creative rootsare' (Devlin, 1986).According himself from other Southern Williams alienates writers.He evendoesnot admit that he acquires like the Southern Southern Gothic,whichhe viewsasa 'suddenefflorescence techniques of writing thatbegan with Faulkner'(p.95).

124 38 image. However, in 'Iguana' Williams is more masseur conveys a grotesque concernedwith presenting his view of the Old/ New South by framing it within Southern locale (the 'long South vemadah'), character and style (grotesque imagery).

For example, he manipulates the use of a Mexican resort near Acapulco to present an exotic, dark and remote gothic environment. However, he

doesnot elaborate on this Mexicanlocality, but usesit to framethe dramawithin

the contrast between the Old and New South. To provide the setting with further illustration, there is a distinctive senseof Southernlife in the resort. The seasonof foreigners is hotel Costa Verde the the cosmopolitan over and residents of accommodate three guests from the United States. This excludes other ethnic groups; even the Mexicans are omitted, as indicated by the fact that no Spanish included words within the narrative. For example, when Miss Jelkes complains to the Patronaabout the younger writer's nudity, no actual Spanishphrasesappearin

her answer; 'she laughed immoderately,translating phrasesof Miss Jelkes' into idiomaticSpanish, to the waitersandthe cook' (je--nnessee complaint shouted Williams CollectedStories,p.234).
In this way, the story demonstrates the absenceor marginalisation of other groups. When non-American charactersare referred to they are usually given an inferior or supporting role. This is evident in the two writers' racist remarks that tie concerning the Mexicans. The natives in Mexico are rather seenas savages

iguanas to polesnearthe doorwayof their huts:behaviour as 'a which is described

typically Mexican way of glossing over an unappetizingfact' (jennessee Williams
38Williams' story 'Desire and the Black Masseur' (1948) narratesthe story of Anthony Bums who has an instinct for being included in things that swallowed him up until his body is devouredby the black masseur.

125

CollectedStories,p.234). The only time the Mexicansare mentioned within the narrative they are referred to as 'these Mexicans' who cannot tolerate the
interruption of sleep (p.237: my emphasis). The use of the article 'these' humanity the of the Mexicans, portraying them as caring only about undermines sleep and the eating of lizards. As such, the non-American characters are left undefined and unnamed with low grade professions such as cook and waiter, as

Patrona andher son. well astheunnamed

With non-American characterskept mute in the story, there is little development in the representationof other races. This maintains the focus of the story on sexual anxiety. It also seemsto stem from Williams' decision not to deal with racial themes in the story, or in part, at least to downgrade them to an impertinent issue.This is perhapsunusual given the Southerncontext but, as I have argued,he presentsSouthernthemeswithin the spaceof the 'long South verandah', a visual representationof Williams' 'Old South'.

it had 'Old South' Williams' perspective the of wasnot a radicalone;

long been considered 'the pastoral Golden Age'. Lewis P. Simpson in 'The Garden: Pastoral and History in Southern literature' (1975) expands Dispossessed fundamental South to the two this see as perspective versions of the on pastoral American pastoral: 'a New England Garden of the covenant' and a 'Southern Garden of the chattel', in which the plantation represents'a pastoral social order

both is beneficial in (Simpson 2 to master and slave' p. as quoted which

Rafailovich, p. 193). The view of the South as the lost garden makes it difficult for twentieth-century Southern writers to 'contend with the issue of slavery' (Rafailovich, p. 193). On the other hand, Bigsby in Modem American Drama, 1945 2000 argues that 'the Southern racist insists that the world conform to his will,

126 accommodateitself to a model whose authority lies in its history' (Bigsby, 2000, if 47). In Williams had chosento deal explicitly with racial themes it this way, p. might have servedto underminethe pastoralmyth of the South. Williams adopts this view of the 'Old South' as a lost garden threatened by the rising order of the 'New South'. Like other Southern writers (such as William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor) Williams uses the actual past for 'satiric purposes and the mythical, pastoral world as a reality to be compared and opposed to the present' (Rafailovich, p. 193). The 'garden as a haven and pastoral landscape' is associatedwith Williams' 'Old South' (N. S. Pradham,'Modem American Drama: A Study in Myth and Tradition' (1980), p. 19, in Rafailovich: pp. 193-94).In the story, the gardenbecomesa 'hilltop on which Costa Verde is planted' (jennessee Williams Collected Stories, p.232: my emphasis).Using the word 'planted' connotesthe image of the hill as a pastoral plantation. On this Southernplantation, there is a conflict betweenthe 'Old South'

with Miss Jelkes' white gentility and conservative associated attitude, and the brashness Miss Jelkes of the two writers of the 'New South'.Meanwhile, retainsa innocence is that to the writers' sexualexperiences certain contrasted and their cruelty.The Mexicansettingof the storyis usedby Williams to highlight apparent between Old andNew asa Southern if the contrast themethat might bej eopardised he tackledracialthemes moreexplicitly.
Williams was fairly consistent in maintaining this myth of the 'Old

South'. However,it remainsrepresentative not of the historical Southbut rather States. This versionof the Southis recognised Williams' own view of the Southern by Rafailovichas Williams' 'adaptationof the myth of the "Old Soutlf' and his
choice of the conflicting views regarding the New South' (Rafailovich, p. 191). For

127 Rafailovich, Williams is not concernedwith exploring the antebellum society, the 39Rather he examines the Civil War or Reconstruction. myth of the 'Old South' through images that are drawn from his own Southern childhood. Holditch and Williams and the South (2002) view Williams' perception of Leavitt in Tennessee the 'Old South' as related to his conceptof home where he hangedhis childhood in Clarksdale ( the town in which he lived from 1915-1918).The inspiration of the Southern locale offers him a solace for the rest of his life despite his being physically withdrawn from it. Therefore, Williams never stayedput in one place for very long and describedhimself as being always in flight in the hopes of escaping the past and finding something better. Cokie Robert, the TV commentator and in 'we have 1997 Southerners a senseof place and a senseof place observed author gives you a sense of self' (Holditch and Leavitt, p.77). It was Mississippi that Williams held close to his heart as after fifty years he was tightly bound by those ties to the South of his origin.

Holditch in 'SouthtowardFreedom: W. Kenneth Tennessee Williams' (1992) argues that 'one of the mostpervasive the work of qualitiesdistinguishing Southernnovelists,dramatists, and poets is the sense of place, an identification in the South',from to be located with onespecificspotin the world, which happens which they draw strengthandeven'their identity' (Kennedy, p.62). However,this d specificspot in the world' is identifiedwith two places:Williams' placeof birth and New Orleans.Holditch views the locationwith which Williams 'cameto be

39 The antebellum period is often looked back on with sentimental nostalgia, as an idealised agrarianand chivalric society, with the moral issuesof slavery generally glossedover. This is due in part to widespreaddestruction causedin the war by both armies and a lingering resentmentof the occupation of the region by Union forces after the Confederacy was defeated. As a result, the fashion and of the period were better documented in this region of the United States architecture than in other parts of the country and are often heavily romanticised.

128 identified' is New Orleans: 'where his creative these two among completely most in life' (p.63). to sense came alter ego a In the 1948 story of 'Iguana' Williams plays down the representation demonstrates 'New South'. This his conflicting attitude towards the 'New the of South', but, like Miss Jelkes who experiences her sexuality at 'the end of the verandah', Williams acknowledgesthe way in which he experiencedhis sexuality in New Orleans40There, in his life away from St. Louis and from the tensions of .

his family, he found: a new and liberatingenvironment wherehe could be himselfandbegin

for the first time seriously to explore his sexualnature, servedto convert the proper young man, wearing a coat and tie and polished shoes,into the Bohemian author who would ultimately blossom into a great dramatist (Holditch and Leavitt, p.67)! ' This exploration he experiencedin New Orleans makes it difficult to read the story as independentfrom the autobiographicalmode. In fact, the story sets up a spatial and physical visualisation of these two fluctuating places:the 'Old South' and the 'New South'. The first is visualised dominates 'Southern that the the story's setting, while 'the two verandah' as

40 However, David Kaplan in 'Tennessee Williams in Provincetown' (2007) thinks that 'for Williams to write about his own sexuality, in any form, inevitably meant writing about Provincetown. He did so at four times in his life' where he spentthe four summersof 1940,'4l, '44, and '47. Williams wrote the plays which made him famous there. It was not until 1975 that Williams' homosexuality becameconfrontational when his 'Memoirs were put together' (Kaplan, p. 87). 41In TennesseeWilliams and the South (2002), Kenneth Holditch and Richard Freeman Leavitt argue that Williams' departurefrom St. Louis to New Orleans in 26 December 1938 dramatiseda change in his life. Living in the French Quarter provided him not only 'with consolation but also with the freedom to be himself. His Bohemian existencethere in those early years was a functional blend of persistent,almost obsessivelabour and pleasurein a new lifestyle to which he had adapted completely' (Holditch and Leavit p.73).

129 the 'New South'. However,Williams' writers' end of the verandah'represents the two versions that the storyis view of the conflict between of the Southsuggests not entirely divorcedfrom his perspective of Americain 1940.He privilegesthe myth of the 'Old South' which views 'the antebellum societyas a placeof order, living and genteel refinement, although he is critical of its Puritanism and decadence' (Rafailovich,pp.192-93). is represented This perspective in the storyby Miss Jelkes' character, whosecontradictoryinheritancestandsin contrastto the modem South of the two writers. Williams' perspectiveof the two writers' territory; at 'the end of the verandah',as a spatialmetaphorof his view of the modemSouth,is masculine associated with the sexuality,violenceandpunishment inheritance is ultimatelypunished. whereMiss Jelkes''Old South'genteel
This relates Williams' perspectiveof the South presentedin the story to his view of modem American society within 'the more general theme of the in outsider modem society' (Rafailovich, p. 192). The minority statusof Miss Jelkes is given credenceby her situation on 'the end of the verandah' which deemsher an outsider in the story. In other words, she is in retreat from the New Southernvalues
of the two writers. This is visualised spatially through the characters' movements, as previously discussed, but it is also conveyed through the narrative and especially the theological dimension of the play. For instance, although the older writer is not interested in God or religion, Miss Jelkes emphasises to him the 'principle atonement'. She views it as awful and 'preposterous that practically of

all our

be based should on the principle of atonement when there is really and religions truly no such thing as guilt' (Tennessee Williams Collected Storiesl p.237). She relates the same principle to the suffering of the iguana being 'hitched to a post'.

130
However, at no point does she define or present an alternative to the 'principle of (p. atonement' 237). In fact, the 'principle of atonement' is presentedas an implicit theme which dominatesthe short story collection. For instancein 'Desire and the Black Masseur', the sameprinciple is defined as a 'surrender of self to violent treatment by others with the idea of therapy cleansing one's self of his guilt' (jennessee Williams Collected Stories,p.206). Moreover, 1948 'Iguana' suggests this principle as the only way for the charactersto achieve purification. During the older writer's sexual assaulton Miss Jelkes,the punishmentof her body acts out the 'principle of atonement'. The phallic power of the older writer unleashesviolence upon her body; by violating Miss Jelkes' body, the older writer exerts power over his territory. Miss Jelkes is a passiverecipient of this sexual violence: 'not she herself resistedbut somedemon of virginity that occupiedher flesh fought off the assailant more furiously than he attacked her' (p.244). This reinforces a notion of the acceptance of punishment as a meansof purification for her intrusion into the two by 'great the territory, echoed violence' of the storm that suddenlyappears writers' door. is The described the storm screen outside as if it is 'plunging toward them, in but suddenthrusts and withdrawals, like a giant bird lunging up not continually is between down' (p. 244). There the effects of the violent stonn on a parallel and the hotel and the metaphorical storm of the sexual assault which Miss Jelkes on the boundary of the two writers' territory. experiences In this sense,there are two storms taking place in the story: the actual storm and the sexualassaulton 'the end of the verandah'. Through this parallel, the terrorising power of the older writer comes to resemblethe supremeirrepressible bird, him inflict the the to giant of giving authority power punishment. However,

131 the scene suggestsa reversal of power generatedby Miss Jelkes' survival of the assault. Instead of revealing the power of punishment, Miss Jelkes' survival underminesthe older writer's power by her ability to endurethe violation. In other words, the scene portrays how strong Miss Jelkes is to endure this brutal sexual assault. The survival of Miss Jelkes averts the power of the older writer who is defeatedby the 'demon of virginity that occupied her flesh [and] fought off the assailantmore furiously than he attackedher. And her demon won, for all at once

her bruisedbosom'(Le-nnessee the manlet go of her gown andhis fingersreleased

Williams Collected Stories, p.244: my emphasis).The term 'demon' relates her

survival to an outsideforce that derivesfrom the moral strengthof her Southern virtue.
Subsequentto the older writer ejaculating on Miss Jelkes, she runs back 'down the verandah to the room she had occupied before' (lennessee Williams Collected Stories, p.245). The act of ejaculating connotesa contradictory by the act is establishedthrough the image significance. The purification suggested light; feels dampness' 'spot left into light' 'a the the turn the she of of after assault her flesh (p.245). The story closes with an image of this light that again on highlights her sexual anxiety. This purification is visualised spatially by her movementback down to her room. She doesnot fear the soundof the iguana; rather she listens for 'its painful sound' and she moves to look 'over the edge of the verandah' after its escape(p.245). By looking over the edge,Miss Jelkes confronts

her sexual anxietyand,for the first time in the story,sheidentifieswith the iguana.
Like the rope loosening on the iguana, she feels that 'in some equally mysterious

her loneliness had had been by the strangling rope of way also severed what (p.245). Ironically, her experience happened' at the writers' end of the verandah

132

her sexualanxietyas the light helpsher achievethis confrontation that reconciles

in darkness, lapping 'over her The the the story outward gaze of mind'. overcomes this sensesuggests a spatial reversalthat is relatedto the question of minority. In other words, the more spatially closer the charactersare to this 'end of the verandah' the more aware they are with regardsto their very own sexuality. Miss Jelkes' experience at the opposite 'end of the verandah' reconciles her her between being is She throughout the stuck story as portrayed anxiety. conflicting inheritances.By moving spatially closer to the margin - the end of the her increasingly hasten I to sexuality. confronts she and add explicitly verandahThe question of minority operates within this spatial reversal, Miss Jelkes, for instance, confronts the view of the ugly iguana by 'looking over the edge of the 'the Her to edge margin of the verandah' rebalances spatial proximity verandah'.

balance is achieved by the two writerswho resideat the 'end her conflict. The same that them as characters of the verandah'.Their spatial marginality centralises They are the centreof the storylineand the main confront their homosexuality. in By the territory. to this their takes margin, spatial spatial moving place action long their the to than central on confront sexual anxiety are more able characters
'South verandah'.

133
CHAPTER 11,PART III

THE ONE-ACT VERSION OF THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1959)

It is clear that the minority issue in the 1948 'The Night of the Iguana' short story is linked to Williams' autobiography, especially as it remains focused on sexual

identity andthe conflict between Old andNew South.However,as I will go on to

discuss, the dramatic versions of Iguan allowed him more distance. Therefore, is development 1959 the to the of crucial one-act play conceptualise reading minority issuesover the course of the final three-actversion of Iguan from 1961. The one-actplay belongsto the period where Williams tries 'to enlargehis material and encompass more universal charactertypes and themes' (Rafailovich, p. 195). The absenceof Williwns' cultural identification with the South in the is the the context within which conveyed, widens concept of minority one-act play in following because, Williams the the as quotation suggests, matured perhaps years betweenthe writing of the short story and the one-actversion: Unfortunately in 1940 1 was younger and stronger and - curiously! in I than the fall of 1953.Now I am a mature am more confident writer and more knowledgeablecraftsmanof theatre,my experienceinside and is Williams in a letter to the outside profession vastly wider (Tennessee Audrey Wood (February 1946), in Roudand,p. 158: my emphasis). Even though he consideredhimself more confident in the 1940s,Williams thought that he lacked the dramatic maturity that he was to gain in the following decade.As the last section argued, the short story version of fizuana from 1948 does engage

134

with minority issues,but does not representa substantialcontribution to the

development of the concept of minority into an experience of marginality -a in contribution more evident the two dramatic versionsof Nuan .

As with several of Williams' other one-act plays, the dating of the !2 dramatic is Iguan version of early uncertain According to some sources,the play was written for the 1959 Spoleto Festival. Contextualisedwithin Williams' mature phase, the one-act play of Iguana, unlike the short story version, constitutes a departurefrom the simple portrayal of minority issuesfound in his earlier work. Set in 1940, the one-act version provides a perspective on Williams' view of a 1940sAmerican society that has begun to be affected by external cultural forces. In this sense,the one-act Iguan moves from the autobiographicalmode of the short story to engage with a wider cultural context. Williams develops the minority question from the experienceof the characters'sexualanxiety into a larger arena of marginality experience.In the one-act play he develops a richer texture with a more sophisticatedcontext than in the story version. There is a more mature development of minority issues in terms of the interrelation between the representationof minorities and the spatial set-up of the play, due in part to the dramatic genre. In this sense,the early one-actplay version conveysthe transitional development of the minority concept that was later to be developed fully in the three-actversion of Iguan in 1961.

Partlybecause the one-act play hasa morechaoticsetting,the concept

becomes in than the story version. The play's setting more complicated minority of is more cosmopolitan and is linked closely with the play's sociological,
42The one-actplay of IZILagna which is a previously unpublished work is available in the archivesof Williams Annual Review 4 (2001). Little scholarly criticism has been completed on The Tennessee this version of the play.

135 from is departure There themes. and religious philosophical psychological, also a the simple representationof the characters' sexual anxiety, onto a wider scale of life anxiety. This anxiety emanatesfrom a larger group of charactersthat paralyses them within a chaotic society dominated by an unseenand absentpower. As such, the play sees a greater number of characters experiencing more intense in than the short story version. conflicts psychological Stagewise, the play is not as vivid as work such as The Glass Menaaerie in which Williams developedhis notion of 'plastic theatre' through the in identifiable discussed light, to the as music and screen relation minority, use of in Chapter One of this thesis. However, in spite of its comparatively poor use of these expressionistictechniquesto parallel the interior psychological status of the characters,the play presentsnew patterns of theatrical space.Here the theatrical in factor issues. functions In the use of as significant structuring space a minority the spatial areas of the hotel including the bedrooms, the verandah and the hammock, and also the visual image of the iguana, spaceis closely linked to the experience of minority in its development into an experience of marginality, as Chapter Three will show. Williams introduces the setting by using detailed spatial indicators - such as 'bedrooms (narrow cubicles)' - which demonstrate the importance of setting for the play. In this way he developsthe story from a simple his dramatic in into Mexico version of own experience a autobiographical experiencewhere spaceplays a significant role. In a similar manner to the short story, the one-act play opens onto a beach Gwooden the of Coletta outside Acapulco, Mexico. With the verandah' on absenceof the 'cliff, the Costa Verde hotel is still located 'above the still water

(Morning) beach called Coletta' (A one-act version of The Nip-ht of the Iguan p. ,

136 vii). Described as 'narrow cubicles', the spatial freedom suggestedby the hotel bedrooms is questionable. Using the phrase 'bedroom, cubicle' suggests the characters' isolation, yet paradoxically they 'open off the verandah' to suggest spatial freedom instead of entrapment (p.vii). Although the cubicles are not numbered as they are in the short story, having the word 'hammocks' in plural suggeststhat more than one hammock is suspended'at intervals between the verandah railing and the wall', and a 'short flight of steps off stage left end of

is flanked by jungle foliage', verandah which with an explicit exit for the 'off
(p.vii). stage' areasuggested Most importantly, the introductory paragraph sets out four main spatial dimensionsof the wooden verandah:(1) 'the verandahrailing'; (2) 'the left end of verandahwhich is flanked by jungle foliage'; (3) the 'annex' which is 'right up the hill' behind the verandah; and (4) the area 'below the verandah,off left' (p. vii). In spite of the spatial dimensionsof the verandah,the play remains focused on

the central part of the verandah take where most of the characters" movements
place. The play openswith the defrocked priest Shannonstaggeringup to the hotel to find rooms for the eleven ladies that are touring with him. He is 35 years old and in the processof a nervous breakdown. Upon his arrival he immediately falls into the hammock, Shannon feels that he has 'just been living for this has been He attractive to the 'stout, swarthy' proprietor of the hotel, verandah'. Mrs. Faulk, 'since he first started bringing parties of tourists to her hotel' (p.viii).

is harassed by JudithFellowes, But Shannon on the verandah a member of his tour

party who accuseshim of abandoningthe official tour scheduleand neglecting his

duties as a tour guide. She threatensShannonthat she will inform the tour

137 DrakeTours,abouthis behaviour. As the play continues, it is clearthat company, from her resentment Miss Fellowes'rageat Shannon stems of his relationship with her youngfemalecharge, Josephine Totter. Miss Fellowesgoesas far as accusing Shannon of 'statuaryrape'-a charge which he will faceif he getsbackto Texas.
At the hotel Shannonmeets a 'water-colour and gouache' artist, Miss Jelkes,and her grandfather, 'a nonogenerianpoet' and a world-traveller (p.xi). Mr. Jelkes is trying to finish his long-awaited poem. Between naps in his rocking-chair and semi-coherentmumbling, Mr. Jelkesrecites some of his early poetic verse. It is not until the end of the play that his long-waited poem is given full expression. Also on stage are a German tour party described as drowning with 'merciless laughter' (p.xiii). As the play unfolds, we can trace a subtle attraction between Miss Jelkes and Shannon,something which irritates Mrs. Faulk. Over the course of the night, the plot becomesdeeper and more complex than one expects. Questionsof life, death,humanity, poverty, art, sex, love, hunger and God arise through the talks betweenShannonand Miss Jelkes.An iguana is caught and tied under the verandah by Mexican boys. Tied by a rope around its neck, the iguana reminds Miss Jelkes her life's 'at the grandfather: end of of rope: a poet: blind: deaf. living to write a last poem, he'll never write' (p.xxxi). Shannon'sfreeing of the iguana at the end of the play is an act of grace and a symbolic visualisation of the liberation which finishes his last Mr. Jelkes comes when poem. The play ends with Miss Jelkes alone on the hill after the death of her grandfather, while Shannon remains with Mrs. Faulk.

138 The one-act play versiondevelops andmodifiesmany characters and

dramatic lines of the short story. In terms of the characters,for example, Miss Jelkes is a painter, which develops the description in the story where she is described as an artist 'combining her painting with travel' (TennesseeWilliams Collected Stories, p.230). Meanwhile, her 'neurasthenia' in the short story is now feeling he is Shannon's 'cracking up' (A one-actversion of The that onto projected

Night of the Iguana, p.viii).

In the short story Miss Jelkes is described as occupying 'a kind of triumphant plateau as an artist or as a person or even perhapsas both' (jennessee Williams Collected Stories, p.230). This description suggeststhat she has various 'unsettled components' that are given new expressionin the play version. When introducing her in the story, Williams predicts that there might be a period of five in her lightning-shot 'life the ten where she would serenely climb over years or decline' her immaturity (p.230: my emphasis). the and waiting murk of clouds of

from the short While Miss Jelkesin the one-actplay retainssomecharacteristics

story, some of her 'unsettled components' are projected onto Mr. Jelkes and

Shannon in the one-act version (p.230). The 'immaturity' of Miss Jelkes in the itself in for Mr. Jelkes' manifests weakened 'power of example, short story, in his finish his to new poem (A one-actversion of The Night efforts concentration' of the Iguana, p.xii). The 'triumphant plateau' that Miss Jelkes might arrive at one

day is linked to her grandfather's artistic personality:he is described as having 'starteda newpoem' andstill having'inspiration'. On the otherhand,the 'murk of in Shannon's decline' in the story finds expression crackingup in the one-act play
'spook' haunts be his him that the slow realisation which can vanquishedonly and

139
through 'sympathetic companionship' Tennessee Williams Collected Stories p.230). The one-actplay sharesits setting with the story version, but develops the situation further. The short story is set 'in betweenthe seasons'at Acapulco, in:

the winter season when the resort was more popular with the cosmopolitan type of foreign tourists had been over for a couple of

season whenordinaryMexicansandAmerican monthsandthe summer

vacationists,thronged there had not yet started (TennesseeWilliams Collected Stories,p.229). However, the one-actplay is set in the summerseasonwith Mexican and American holiday makers and German tourists. This adds a cosmopolitan flavour that is absentin the story. Although the one-act play develops certain hints made in the short story, its limited length does not allow for a thorough exploration of the links between cosmopolitanism and the minority question. Just as the story focuses on Miss Jelkes' anxiety, so the play explores the anxiety which positions Shannonas a develops in The the the though, play range of story exploring minority character. Shannon's anxiety through a series of dualities. The play operatesaround a series of opposites despair-hope, romanticism-realism, and heterosexuality-

homosexuality - which reflect Shannon's anxiety about living a chaotic human

focus Shannon is figures in The this that the of narrow on result other existence. function dramatic do these as characters; not ratherthey embrace andrepresent play
dualities. As a playwright (rather than a short-story writer), Williams gathersthese charactersprimarily to weave the dualities that formulate Shannon's anxiety. For

140 example,Mr. Jelkesas a poet representsromantic qualities that are opposedby the

coarseness of the earthy Germans,and Miss Jelkes' hope is contrastedwith

Shannon's constant despair. The suggested homosexuality of Miss Fellowes (implied by the bitterness of her accusationsagainst Shannon) is contrastedwith Mrs. Faulk's heterosexuality. By this argument, Shannon is the only character in the play whose characterization is dramatically complete. Applying this

perspective,my main concern will be to discussShannon'sanxiety as the primary focus for minority issuesin the play. Shannon'sanxiety stemsfrom his experienceas a wanderer for whom the world is meaninglessand purposeless.This is due to his inability to reconcile his desire with a comprehensionof the meaning of life, reinforced by his loss of faith in God, which leads to his expulsion from the church. His dilemma comes his between his the tension that through mind asks questions and experience about .of life which refusesto give answers.He lives in a state of loss that marginalises

Shannon's him andintensifieshis anxiety.For example, violation of DrakeTours'

'itinerary' exemplifies this anxiety. In his searchfor new meaning in life he is led

to 'placesnot listed in the brochure' and 'what lies under the public surfaceof
listed, the off the ground boulevards and away from the cities, among resorts not smart night-clubs' (A one-act version of The Night of the Iguana, pp.xxi-xxii). He for alternative is not satisfied with knowing what is permitted; rather, he searches him being 'to the that the expose will rare, very exceptional chance of experiences

thesealternative touched andmovedby the depths andthe dregs'(p.xxiii). Because by his interior becomes are condemned others, anxiety an conflict. experiences Retreatingto the verandah,Shannonseeksa refuge from this conflict. Yet,

141
ironically, he finds himself increasingly entrapped until he is offered help from

Miss Jelkes.
The inteffelation.betweenbody and spacein the one-actplay is not as integrated as in the story version, but place is still crucial for understandingthe dramatisation of Shannon's anxiety within the theatrical space.Shannon's anxiety is visualised by his static position on the verandah. He enjoys escaping to the it for his he is On the as a unresolved represents refuge anxiety. verandah verandah, identified with certain physical objects that hypnotise him, including the hammock identifies Shannon which as his haven. Everyone on the verandahunderstandshis attraction to the hammock, and they even go as far as to push him towards it by drinking him to there stay rum-coco. In doing so, they metaphorically asking increase his anxiety. For example, indicating the hammock, Mrs. reinforce and

is unstable, Faulk asksShannon to 'lie down' whenever the actionon the verandah (A one-act can get up from the hammock andMiss Fellowesdoubtsthat Shannon is versionof The Night of the Iguan , p.viii). His identificationwith the hammock
exemplified by Shannon'sstruggle up to 'a sitting position' in the hammock, which parallels his inability to allay his anxiety (p.ix). This position is made explicit by the comments of Latta who takes charge of the tour instead of Shannon. Latta shares with the other charactersthe belief that Shannon will 'never get off this for to again except pick up a coconut verandah a rurn-coco' (p.xxiii). As a result,

feels further isolation,reinforcedthrough his spatial identificationwith Shannon the hammock.

It is not only his relationshiPs with other charactersthat reinforce Shannon's anxiety, but internal limitations such as his inability to define abstract conceptssuch as God. Shannon'sanxiety is connectedwith his loss of faith in God,

142

In the world of one-act Iguan andhe feelsthat life is chaoticandwithout purpose.

the only visible power is the political power of the Germans who confront the suffering of the characterswith their merciless laughter. The Germansare referred to only in national terms as 'the German couple', 'the Germans', 'German man', 'German voice', and 'the German party, and their power is implicit rather than explicit. The 'German voice' that is heard only seemsremotely connectedto the action, merely issuing orders or seeking compliance from its subordinates,but the 6voice' is neverthelessa powerful presenceon stage (p.xxxiii). This highlights the play version as a dramatisation of the social and political precipice that was the United Statesat the beginning of the 1940s,just before its involvement in World War 11,when the nation was finding it hard to comprehendpowerful forces in the world, here symbolised by the Nazi's totalitarian regime. Even though this historical precipice is not explicitly addressedin the play (mainly due to its short length), it still functions as a factor that reinforces Shannon'sanxiety.

With only reason finds he is unableto define Shannon at his disposal, loss of faith in God implies a crumbling of the the conceptof God. Shannon's foundation of truth andmorality.As a result,what is true andmoral is questionable
in the play. For example, the heterosexual relationship between Shannon and JosephineTotter is condemnedby the homosexual Mrs Fellowes. Shannoncannot cross the Texas border without Mrs Fellowes accusing him of 'statutory rape', and she swearsthat shewill have him arrestedfor raping her friend (p.ix). The statusof

between the older andthe youngerwomanmirrorsthe relationship the relationship

betweenthe two writers in the short story, suggestingthat Miss Fellowes may well

be a lesbian.Herein lies one of the play's dualitieswhich reinforce Shannon's

143 anxiety. The homosexuality of Miss Fellowes makesShannonquestionthe morality

desire. of his heterosexual

This questionable morality is related to Williams' projection of homosexuality onto Miss Fellowes. It may well be that Williams chose to project homosexuality onto a female characterto avoid any autobiographicalresonances in the play, but the play nevertheless seems to favour or privilege homosexuality

heterosexuality Shannon. Miss is Fellowes than the of an authoritative rather

for Shannon his throughout the to who returns play remind character of punishment his heterosexualrelations with Josephine.His punishment takes the form of spatial in entrapment the hammock on the verandah and, by extension, his inability to cross back over the Texas border. Nevertheless,Williams does avoid presenting homosexuality as explicitly as it is portrayed in the short story. Miss Fellowes'

is narrated; homosexuality For example, we do not seeevidence of it on the stage.

her girlfriend, Josephine,does not appear on stage, which does not dramatise the female body as a spectaclefor homosexuality. As the play progresses,Shannondiscovers his inability to resolve his anxiety. In Costa Verde he is stuck within time, unable to understandthe meaning of God. Eventually, though, through Miss Jelkes, Shannon shifts into self-

questioningmode about the relationshipbetweenhimself and his environment; is MeetingMiss Jelkes,Shannon to renewhis self-esteem. which helps Shannon the meaningof existence, given a chanceto recapture resolvedby Miss Jelkes' Godagain.During her conversation helpingShannon to comprehend with Shannon,
for Shannon'sanxiety is to aid his return to God. that the only solution she realises That is why she is portrayed as a helper for Shannonwho can lead him to the light is faith. image This the the through visualised on of stage of Miss Jelkes' alcohol

144 bumer. The image of the tea pot and the bumer depictsMiss Jelkesas a personwho wants to comfort Shannonby bringing light into his life: the teapot with the burner this warmth and comfort. represents Due to his lack of faith, Shannonlives in darkness.He needsthe help of Miss Jelkesto achieve the light of faith that can resolve his anxiety. To maintain this image of darkness,Shannonis identified with a ghost: describedas a 'spook' in the play. The image of the spook 'creeping and crawling around the rain forest' inside darkness Shannon that prevents him from seeing outside this represents himself: his own 'coconut shell'. Gradually, Miss Jelkesmanagesto communicate with Shannonto free him from his 'coconut shell' in order to confront his darkness. Before speaking with Miss Jelkes, Shannon has succumbed to his anxiety by surrenderingto darkness;he is happy enough to drink the rum-coco to hypnotise his anxiety. himself as a way to escape Miss Jelkes helps Shannon to gain a renewed hope in God by stimulating him to free one of God's creatures:the iguana. Setting the iguana free representsa moment of grace and the transcending of Shannon's anxiety. She identifies the iguana with Mr. Jelkes 'at the end of life's rope: a poet: blind: -deaf: living to write a last poem' (p.xxxi). By setting the iguana free, Shannon looks into himself God's the suffering of other creatures,which brings him closer outside to the light of faith that helps to reconcile his anxiety. Miss Jelkes helps Shannon beyond his anxiety. By shining his thereby act of mercy and see perform an

flashlight 'upon the sourceof the scuffling soundbeneath the verandah',Shannon

is linked closely to the iguana 'trying to go on past the end of its goddam rope' (p.xxix). This identification makes him realise his oppressiveanxiety from which

he alsoneeds to be setfree.

145 Descending from the hilltop to swim, the play ends with Shannon's final connectionbetweenhimself and the iguana: 'another one of God's creaturesis going down to the beach to swim in the liquid moonlight' (A one-act version of The NiAt of the Iguan p.xxxv: my emphasis). Shannon realises that light

from different a source than the rum-coco that symboliseshis hypnotic emanates loneliness. It also helps him to achieve his own synthesis with Mrs. Faulk as a realistic sensualwoman who can support him and make 'the place more attractive' by giving him the freedom to seebeyond what is allowed to be seen(p.xxv). In the end, he realisesthat his exile in Mexico seemsto be a better option than going back to Texas. In exile he is able to reconcile his anxiety and to comprehendthe world again, but only with the support of Mrs. Faulk who takes him down to 'swim away from the Germanparty' (p.xxv). Hence, he escapes into the light of faith away from the incomprehensible power of the Germans that had compounded his anxiety earlier in the play.

On the other hand,Miss Jelkes'supportof Shannon is relatedto the of the fatherfigure in the play, andlinks backto the themeof atonement question in the short story. The play locatesthe sourceof authorityas an absentreligious is linked to the metaphor force; the absence of the storm-scene of the fatherfigure in the play. This reinforcesthe absence the of the God-like figure that represents centreof authorityanda figure of punishment at the sametime, as a versionof an God. Thus, the theme of sexualanxiety from the short story is Old Testament into intense broader life in a more and anxiety the one-act expanded play. The idea hereinto a religiousinterpretation of the fatherfigure is developed of the absence is hintedat in the one-act of authority.Althoughthis interpretation play, the limited length makes it difficult to trace this interpretationto the extent that it is

146
in the three-actversion of 1961Iguana,as I will explore in the next part represented of this chapter. Nevertheless, Miss Jelkes representsa sign of the existence of the father-figure. Shehas a dual role of messenger and helper. She is sentby the absent God, a patriarchal supremepower, to confirm His unseenpresence.It is clear that Miss Jelkes is the healer that Shannon awaits. This is pointed out in Shannon's statement:'Now I know why I came hereV (A one-actversion of The Night of the Iguan p.xix). Her supportive personality and bodily languagereinforce the image , of the healer. In this way, Miss Jelkes is a pragmatic person who is capable of bringing about synthesis for Shannon. She adopts certain tactics to fulfil her mission as a healer. For example,her poppy-seedtea helps Shannonto 'get through nights that are hard' for him (p.xxv). Through practical methods she communicates with Shannonand helps him to resolve his anxiety.

However,the one-act play doesnot present a maturecharacterization tone andis very direct in the way she of the healer.Miss Jelkesadopts a preaching Shecomments 'how to help you, Mr to help Shannon. seeks very straightforwardly: Shannon. Do Taking hold her hand, teach think tight you could you me? a of and his hand to coverthe tearsin his eyes' (p.xix). Realisingthat Miss other raising
Jelkes is interested in helping him; Shannon wonders why he came there. This foreshadowsMiss Jelkes' function in resolving Shannon's concernsand presentsa for his anxiety. On more than one occasion she is seen to cry to solution emotionally manipulate Shannon:for example, when she asks Shannonto free the iguana and when Mr. Jelkes recites his poem. Such actions tend to weaken Miss Jelkes' authority as a healer. Hence, Miss Jelkes is not representedas a dramatic is her role made clear as a person who does not take an active part in character;

147 furtherdevelopher passivity.Emphasis but onewho observes. Her gestures scenes, being 'behind' othercharacters, is alwayson Miss Jelkes that sheactsas suggesting
last the the taking always watching scene unfold and only action at a messenger, possiblemoment. In my argument, the use of light in the play signifies a symbolic referenceto the question of the God-like father figure. Nancy Tischler in 'Romantic Textures in Tennessee Williams' Plays and Short Stories' (1997) offers an insightful examination of the theological connotation of light in Williams' work. She observes 'a sweep of sky and sea, a rainforest; sounds of thunderstorms, lightning, and wind', all of which she views as 'signals of God's sovereignpower, dwarfing the human activities' (Roudand, p. 159). Based on this argument, the in God-like the the the these storm-scene play visualises absence of of absence deific signs of thunder and lightening. Shannonis longing for the light as a sign of

is his God He God's unseen this to that there to needs sign prove reconcile power. locate help healer is it for Shannon to the through the of possible anxiety,andonly the light that signifiesthe existence this light. Miss Jclkcshas herselfreached of
God, and has done so by looking at things outside herself. her artistic sensibility forces her 'to look at things: skies-oceans-light human faces' (A one-actversion ... helped light This her Niaht Iguan The the the end of the of p. xxvii). see grey at of ,

the tunnelthat 'becarne clearerand clearer'as shewent on towardit until it turns

faith is light Yet, It God's (p. that the of signifies sovereign power. xxvii). white

The Glass Menagerie,the weak use of Williams' as earlier plays, such unlike in functional techniques the the theatre one-act play minimises significance plastic is decoded by left be light. Its to the characterization the significance and the of
dialogue rather than being apparentin the theatrical stagetechniques.

148 Furthermore, reading the image of the poet in the play is a means of developing the significance of the light in relation to the issue of God. It is significant that with his extreme age and confinement to his wheelchair Mr. Jelkes in is However, Mr. Jelkes the character also a play. representsanother minority in in Glass Sebastian Suddenly Tom Wingfield The Menagerie of and reminder Last Summeras a representativeof the archetypeof the artist in Williams' dramatic longs be divinity him hilltop, Jelkes Mr. Ascending to to to to the close allow work. he hilltop hotel, By to the the the going enjoys the chaotic world. up comprehend 'declamation of his last poem' (p.xxxiv). He knows that he will finish the poem; he tells Hannah he is 'pretty sure' he is going to 'finish it here' (p.xv). Tischler's is Williams 'artistic God' 'the the the of artist, not creed' primacy of views (Roudand, p. 147). The poet can be seen representing this 'artistic creed' that in bear Mr. God-figure Unable to the the silence and solitude, absent play. replaces Jelkesis driven to communicate'the presenceof somethingbeyond the province of 159). (Roudand, p. matter' Tischler argues that Williams perceives that 'writers are the messengersof transcendence,informing humanity that humdrum life behind the help heaven' look (Roudan6, is full Poets to towards the people story. not plough in he has Mr. Jelkes According 159). the the to play gift of art, and my reading, p. is his it This through to the characters. constant other articulated communicates 'Oh, Courage, the could you not as well select a second verse: poetic recitation of is fight based hope His dwell' (p. the to to poem on and courage xxiii). place despair.

Mr. Jelkes tries to communicate this vision to the characterson the his hesitant The 1959 I%zuan through poetic verses. world of seems too stage

149 -in to that which is false and impure' (Roudand, p. 149). In other words, the artistic vision of Mr. Jelkes cannot be communicateddirectly. It is a world controlled by the dominant surveillanceof the Germanswho 'drown out' Mr. Jelkes' poetic verse 'with their laughter' (A one-act version of The Night of the Iguana, p.xiii). Mr. Jelkes' poem is an attempt to rebalancethe chaotic setting of the play, a chaos is by which caused the absenceof God. This poetic attempt at rebalanceis always laughed at by the German group on stage, paralleling the rising silenced and dominanceof the Nazis in 1940. Even when he finishes his poem towards the end German for 'quiet' (p.xxxiii). the the group still asks play, of There is a parallel between Mr. Jelkes' throat and the tied iguana: Mr. Jelkes releaseshis poem only after the iguana is unleashed.This also follows the has that grown between Miss Jelkes and Shannon.When from his communication narrow cubicle Mr. Jelkes utters his final poetic verse that rebalancesthe play, the initiates in him Shannon, demonstrating the to poem a marked change of release that the light of faith does exist. Mr. Jelkeshas reachedthis light, which helps him faith in his Shannon. stimulates creed and a artistic renewed utter By ending with the recitation of the poem, the play suggeststhat Mr. Jelkeshas reachedthe light. He even asksMiss Jelkesto switch off the light as 'the is brighter'; he in interior 'pray dark', but has to the almost prefers an moonlight light that leads him to the faith represented by his final verse (p.xxxiii). Immediately following the recitation of Mr. Jelkes' poem, Mrs. Faulk appears looking 'over rail' to see Shannondown there (p.xxxiv). She takes him to swim in the liquid moonlight. The play ends with Shannon submitting to the supportive hand of Mrs. Faulk, to bring him closer to the moonlight. chaotic to apprehendthis 'element human-life that put up the strongestresistance

150 into a three-act Beforethe story was expanded play in 1961,it seems that the one-act play had not fully realisedWilliams' ambitionto present a radical shift of focus from minority characterstowards the broader experienceof in this part of the chapter,it contains marginality.However,as I have examined ideas for development. Sincea fuller development this progressive somepromising is given in the three-act versionof 1961Iguana,the following part of this chapter this versionto demonstrate this development. will examine

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CHAPTER 11,PART IV

SPATIAL REVERSAL IN THE THREE-ACT VERSION OF THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1961)

The drama in my plays, I think, is nearly always people trying to reach

eachother.In TheNiaht of the Nuan eachonehashis separate cubicle

but they meet on the verandah outside their cubicles, at least Hannah and Larry Shannonmeet on the verandahoutside their cubicles, which is of coursean allegorical touch of what people must try to do. It's true they're confined inside their own skins, or their own cubicles, but they must try to find a common ground on which they can meet becausethe only truly satisfying moments in life are those in which you are in contact, and I do not mean just physical contact, I mean in deep, a deepercontact than physical, with some other human being (Tennessee Williams in 'Studs Terkel talks with TennesseeWilliams' (1961), in Devlin, pp.80-81).

Williams' fascination with the As the above quotation suggests,Tennessee

is in the spatial metaphorsof his 1961 play of place given expression significance The Night of the-lvuana.To explore Williams' use of theatrical spacein Iguana it is

not sufficientto look at whatthe actualtext offers.It is importantto go beyondthe

text to read the stagecraft, especially as Williams emphasisedstage performance, body language and theatrical techniques in his drama. To understandthe play in

152 performance requires more than an examination of the stage design, architecture,

it lighting: deal Williams' and must also acoustics with creativeuse of theatrical
space. The overall argument in the following part of the chapter will decode the stage directions by reading bodily and spoken language as well as visual and aural images. As a development of my reading of the earlier versions of Iguan , earlier in this chapter, the discussion here is devoted to the physical movement of the characters on the stageand how objects are presentedand usedwithin theatrical space.I am concernedhere with reading the senseof Place in the play, achievedby decoding the interrelation of two contrasting spatial poles: interior and exterior in their and reversal as space expressed the action of the play. Challenging the interior 1961 Iguan between theatrical the of space, a conflict confines presents be This the spaces. conflict cannot approachedmerely from reading and exterior the play as a text: not until the play is approachedas a performanceis it possible to decode Williams' interest in the spatial reversal of interior and exterior space in Ip, uana. The following study will show that to approachthe minority question in Williams' Iguan it is important to reflect on the senseof place and the spatial reversalsutilised in the play. The 'self' who entrapsWilliams' early characters(as discussedin Chapter One of the thesis) will be referred in Iguana (1961) as 'the interior space'. Here the concept of minority is developed from an identity of a into fully dramatised be in an of marginality which group experience certain will

Williams' laterplays.

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doesnot refer to the identifiablecharacters Herethe minority concept but in Williams' is to characters the early plays, case embodyingconflicting as dualitiesthat cause their alienationfrom societydueto their inability to reconcile innerconflict asresultof inability to find Theyexperience their dualities. a constant demonstrate balance. Accordingly, I that Iguan 's characters are unableto will a
In this sense,regarding the new structureby which easy reconciliations. accomplish it frames the minority question; Iguan is a real departure from Williams' early in his Williams In minorities as self-entrapped, earlier plays, presents plays. is from in departure Iguan there the 'self towards an experience of a contrast, conflict with the exterior space. Surprisingly, 'space' works as a possible therapy for this conflict of the minority charactersin the play. As I will show, this reflects Williams' view of the minority question as conceptualisedthrough the senseof is issue in but little has been in This the the crucial play, a approaching play. place in discussed focal 1961 the this as subject, question of place rarely written on Nuan .

is I will introduce In this part of the chapter what meantby the interior begin by definition I the the elucidating of these space of play. and exterior interior the and exterior - and go on to project the concepts polarisedspatial fluctuating interior a mental place onto stagecraftand of space as suggestion idea This to the study attempts establish of 'space'as specificphysicalmovements. duality, intertextual to of metaphors spatial particularlyrelatingto interior related is duality The orientedtowardsquestions of 'flesh' and 'spirit' spatial andexterior. in Iguana,in its representation suchasMaxineand 'spiritual' of 'fleshy' characters hover between Shannon Hannah, those the two such as and of who as characters does.I will examinethe spatialreversalin termsof the violation of the exterior

154 interiority how by is that and space related to the minority question in the play. This violation will be read by examining visual imagesand symbols in conjunction with the dramatic text's monologuesand stagedirections. Certain techniquesin the play externalisethe characters' interiority while other techniquespresent a blurring of the distinctions between inner and outer space.For example, unlike the 1948 short story of 'Iguana', we see only the events that take place on the verandah, while interior the eventswithin of the cubicles are only narrated.The scenesdo not reveal directly the interior space of these cubicles, as the exterior is privileged on the stage. I will adopt what we may call a 'territorial view' by categorising Hannah's arrival as an invasion of Maxine's territory, these being the two female characters between which Williams' protagonist Shannon is placed. A close reading of the staging of this territory and the territorial fight betweenHannah and

Maxine will be discussed as representative of a metaphoricalinvasion of the

interior body by exterior space.The study will close by considering the impact of invasion framing the spatial on of minority confinement in Iguan . such It is noticeable that the setting dominates the 1961 three-act play, is Most than the the so earlier one-act version. of more action set on the verandah of the Costa Verde hotel and great significance is given to the verandah on which the play's events are centralized. Williams writes the beginning of the play as a detailed account of the setting: prologue which provides a

by a railing, runs aroundall of the hotel ... enclosed a wide verandah

four sides of the somewhat dilapidated, tropical-style frame structure,

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but on the stagewe seeonly the front and one side Qe Night of the
Iguana, OrpheusDescending,p.6). At the Costa Verde hotel, the three main characters share the experience of the night. Set in a Mexican seaside resort during World War 11, Iguana is the story of Rev. Lawrence Shannon, a defrocked Episcopal minister. Arriving on his tour bus filled with Baptist women (whom Shannonis taking on tour), Shannonstopsthe bus and climbs alone up to the hilltop setting of the Costa Verde hotel. Shannonarrives at the hotel on the edge of a nervous breakdown as before but Williams is more explicit than in the one-act play: in this version Shannonhas been thrown out of the church for committing fornication and heresy. Instead of his friend Fred (whose death by infection is left ambiguous), Shannon finds at the hotel Fred's earthy and sensualwidow, Maxine, who hires diving-boys her lovers. finds Shannon casual as also a kindred spirit, Hannah Jelkes.The rumcoco tree and the cries of the parrot representthe spiritual life of the Costa Verde

to the appearance of middle-aged andarecontrasted spinster artist,Hannah, andher

aged grandfather, Nonno, the 'oldest living and practicing poet' who is trying to finish his long-awaited poem (p.34). Between impromptu naps and mumbling attempts to complete his last poem, Nonno recites fragments of his unfinished poetic versethroughout the play. The ethereal aspect of Hannah and the lusty nature of Maxine

a crucial duality, with Maxine seeingin Hannaha rival to her intimacy establish
Consequently, Shannon. the whole play takes the form of a series of with between the two women over Shannon.An iguana caught and tied confrontations under the verandah by a Mexican boy, symbolises the play's theme and the characters' suffering. The unleashing of the iguana by Shannonat the end of the

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his is act of grace and a symbolic of own visualisation consideredan play liberation.Also on stageare a Nazi family, who althoughgiven only a few lines serveas a constantreminderof the outside world, and through whom we are informedof the bombingof LondonduringWorld War II.
As the play unfolds, we can trace an attraction between the spinster Hannah and the fallen clergyman Shannon, that as the night unfolds becomes Williams far deeper masterfully visualises through more complex. and something the play the tale of theselost souls, who like the iguana are each at the end of their by healing Providing the of of possibility redemption and exploration an ropes. living beyond despair,Iguana standsas a real departurefrom Williams' early plays is it This the enactedat the end of the play when the provokes. optimism regarding finishing dies Nonno the poem, suggestinga potential restoration of after old man balance. This echoesa statementmade by Williams in 'Williams on Williams', a in is 1962, John E. Booth Funke Lewis that the about play and conversationwith 'how to live beyond despair and still live' (Williams as quoted in Delvin, p. 104). Ending with Hannah's realisation of the impracticality of life with Shannon, the her Shannon departing Hannah travels, while remains with alone on play endswith Maxine at the Hotel. In this reading of Iguana the discussion of interior space will be developed from meaning the self which confines Williams' early characters to bodily desires body, to the and unfulfilled sexual particularly suppressed relate also both is fluctuating interior Moreover, that the characters mental area space a urges. is This live within. one of the prominent concepts that the play embody and introducesin relation to the developmentof the minority issues.Quoting Williams,

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is a 'subterranean the interior space world'. It canbe thoughtof asthe unlit side due to the restrictionsof the exterior world. It is of the self that is suppressed
positioned in contrastto the exterior space:the outside world of the theatrical stage. This subterraneanworld is neither tolerated nor given credence by the exterior it finds itself in confinement and isolation. As I have world, and as a consequence suggested,the play reveals an intersection between interior and exterior spaces, experienced as a spirit/flesh conflict which is mapped onto the three main characters:Maxine (of the flesh), Hannah (of the spirit) and Shannon, hovering

43

between the two states.

Very little has been written about the spatial interior concept in do illuminate this interior space,but do not broach the Iguana. Somecritical essays issue of space as a central theme related to the minority question in the play. Although Glenn Embrey's article suggeststhe importance of looking beyond the surface text of Iguan into its subterraneanworld, his concept of this world is danger destruction. Embrey theme to as of and sex an underlying arguesthat related the play intimates that 'sex is degrading', and he supports this assertion with the

He thinksthat: illustrationof Hannah's asexuality.

Hannah creates,in the audience;the impression that withdrawing from sex is positive or healthy, since we tend to see all the behaviour of an indicates that we character as admirable, unless something admirable in feel indicates her And this that nothing play otherwise. sexual should is reluctance a problem (p.338).

43 The 'subterranean world' is a term usedin the text of 1961Iguanabut is emphasised. asthe main World of The Night of the 12 themeof GlennEmbrey'sarticle 'The Subterranean uan , (1977)to (see 1977). here Tharpe, I refer which

158 Embrey confines the arena of this interior space to unfulfilled sexuality, and factor in formulating the subterranean the prominent configures sex as world of the play. He comparesIguan to Williams' early story, 'Desire and the Black Masseur' is desire that a 'gigantic dark force that batters human beings and which suggests finally devours them' (p.340). Iguan shows that thirteen years later after the fear is 'the this of sex' still central to Williams' work and it story, publication of undermines for Embrey 'whatever positive values the playwright [Williams] consciouslywishes to attribute to human relations' (p.340). Lindy Levin's 'Shadow into Light: A Jungian Analysis of The Night duality human Contextualising ' (1999) Iguan the the offers a sharp contrast. of of images light of and dark, 'man and beast', and the split nature within contradictory in personality between the 'known and unknown part', Levin considers the dark in (Levin, 87). Quoting Carl Jung's Iguan theory of psychic the p. shadow side as archetypes,Levin defines shadow as 'the negative side of the personality, the sum like hide' (Connie Zweig and Jeremiah to those we unpleasant qualities of all Abrams 'Meeting the Shadow' (1991), p.3, in Levin, p. 87). She develops her

'part is defining by the as of unconscious which shadow sometimes argument

imperfect is flawed, inferior "other"the that the to alter ego shameful, as referred basement (p. 87). Framing the this argument within to the of psyche' and relegated Iguana, Levin thinks that Williams creates 'blue devils and spooks' to show that 'inner demonsare the sourceof self torture and cruelty to others' (p.87). However, the 'light side' is not tackled in Levin's article. Both Levin and Embrey dismiss the

fact that,unlike Williams' earlierplays,in Iguana the dramatic themes areachieved thoughperformance on the theatricalstage, ratherthan dealingwith the themesof

159

the

44 teXt.

My readingconsiders the visualisation to examine of this interior space

its demystification.

Stagewise, interior space is visualised through images as well as through monologue and dialogue. In Iguan certain visual items are usedto project the interior spaceof the charactersonto the exterior spaceof the stage.Visual items include the cubicles, the verandah and the hammock - all the key spatial areasof

Verdehotel. the Costa

The verandah is located as an extension of the main building of the hotel. It is initially depictedas a 'roofed verandah,enclosedby the railing' that runs 'around all' its four sides(The Night of the Iguana, Olpheus Descending,p.6). This highlights its marginality as a space,yet its marginality is reversedby Williams into a centrality. As part of the hotel, the verandah is given special attention, with building. fact, In the the the whole dramatic action mentioned of rest of nothing takes place on the verandahas the main setting for the play. It is the stagefor the

communication outsidetheir separate characters' cubicles,andit is alsothe centre

of the dramatic action where communication between the characterstakes place outside of their isolated cubicles. The isolated individuals are ironically shifted by various issuesonto this verandah,into the centre of events and into the foreground for the audience.

Thehammock the signifiesa third exteriorvisualobjectthat visualises interior spaceof the characters, and it represents a physical object with which builds his own Shannon exclusivelyidentifies.Throughthe hammock,Shannon
exterior physical escapeout of the hostility and the spatial entrapmenthe feels in
44This is because the main concern in Williams' early plays is the characters that manifest the theme of self-confinement.

160
his only outlet. That is why the CostaVerde hotel: as such,the hammock represents whenever Shannonfeels that he is pressurisedby the heat of the events,he returns to the hammock as a sanctuaryfrom the crisis of the action. His struggle to realise his shattered self-identity can be prolonged only outside the place he occupies, motivating him to build another physical outlet for escapethrough the hammock. Shannon creates a physical identification with the banunock but, in the same identification, he also re-asserts the interior spaceof his alienatedidentity as a place it he from In to the the course of play, whenever steps away of retreat and escape. involve himself in the action onstage,he strugglesto return to the hammock. Throughout the play Shannon adopts a back and forth movement, is his instability demonstrates that paralleled by his constant mental which swinging in the hammock: he 'staggers back to the path', 'he drops back on the brokenly', 'draws 'moves 'starts 'stumbles towards', and quickly widly', step',

his however, finishes Nonno back'. After Hannah's the stillness poem, grandfather
hammock Nonno's the swinging and symbolises the stability chair replaces of is he describedin the At Shannon the the this end of play. point achievesat which instead firm directions movements, of the restraining ones that as adopting stage into he him 'comes 'crouches', 'cuts the rope with a quick, throughout: view', mark hard stroke', 'starting to climb on to the verandah' (p. 116). His movements on his firm do longer yet and assured gestures restrained, not prevent the stageare no

interior by his the exterior. space of violation Shannon cannotresistthe violation of his interiority by the exterior
his inner forces him his feelings In to struggle confess and words, other stage. image Hannah to the theatrical that visualisesthis audience: a and memories painful in interiority becomes At Shannon the the points many play, of exterior violation.

161

In Act Three, throughthe spoken wordsof monologue, confession andlamentation. thinking he is alone, Shannonbegins a soliloquy about his disapprovalof the He wants the outsideworld, which he thinks is rotten, neurotic and repressed. others to see this underworld, which is very different from the shining and world in which they live. In this world thereare'a lot of hungrypeople' glamorous his tour Shannon invitesthe that die of 'starvation'(p.111).That is why throughout
Baptist ladies to seethis subterranean world. He thinks that by exposingthem to the

subterranean world, he is fulfilling a bettermissionthanhe couldasa minister.The

twist is that this horrible subterraneanworld reflects Shannon's interiority from in he is In Foster Hirsch A Portrait of the Artist: this trying to regard, escape. which the Plqys of TennesseeWilliams (1979) compares Shannon with Williams, the playwright: a misbehaving child who delights in shocking the philistines. From preaching about a God of thunder and Lightning to a congregation

God "bad tempered, of as a childish, old, sick, on a concept weaned irregular descends he to tours to the conducting man", peevish
(Hirsch, 67). p. underworlds of all places However, my argument in this part of the chapter departs from drawing a parallel betweenShannonand Williams to view Shannonas a violator of the exterior space.

instead inside He doesthis by lookingfor the horrorof the underworld of searching himself. Shannon Celebrating oddity andperversion, enjoystaking his tour ladiesto face the underworldinsteadof looking inside his own interior hoffor. He cannot
acknowledge the horror of his interiority, particularly his complex sexuality. The

162 is between his interior a problematic relationship moving result and exterior spaces: in the exterior space, Shannon represses his interiority. Embrey argues that Shannon's interiority comprisesthe horror of sexuality that drives him to expose himself and others to the horrors in tropical countries. Quoting Shannon's monologue at the end of Act Three, Embrey supportsthis line of the argumentas he for behaviour 'either Shannon's that guilt or sexual senses rebellion accounts sex for him is on a par with the other ravaging horrors he subjectshimself and his tours to' (Tharpe, 1977,p.336). Stagewise,meanwhile, the iguana is used as a visual image of the interiority of the characters.By the end of Act Three, Shannon's monologue is by iguana is Hannah's 'beneath the that tied the verandah'; query about preceded Shannon lurches into 'his cubicle and back out with a flashlight' to point out to Hannah the iguana (The Night of the Iguana. Orpheus Descending, p. 111). Shannon'sflash lighting of the iguana that tries 'to go on past the end of its goddarn

is his his that to tour the world subterranean attempt reveal rope' parallels constant
hidden from most eyes (p. 111). The iguana is used as a visual symbol that

As the interior subterranean world and suffering of the characters. externalises

is between the 'iguana' and the 'subterraneanworld'. In such, an analogue set up looks for iguana figuratively; it does Embrey the to this view, at not stand contrast interpreted but be the major characters, can as a symbol of all human beings any of and 'creatures made grotesqueby suffering and teffor, frequently forced to live in the most degrading of conditions' (Tharpe, 1977,p.328). This also links the iguana

is in the to the function of the play's setting:the subterranean embodied world

tropical climate of Mexico.

163
As a visual symbol of the subterranean world, the iguana represents according to my reading the three main characters'interiorities. As with the iguana, this subterranean world of the charactersis bound in their interiority, and cannotbe admitted into the exterior space.Shannonis tied to his ghosts in the hammock and the coco-rum.drink, and other charactersare also entrapped:Nonno is confined to his wheelchair and Hannah to her art and watercolours. As such, the iguana visualises the entrapmentof Hannah, Shannonand Nonno: as Shannonputs it; 'at the end of its rope? Trying to go on past the end of its goddam rope? Like you! Like me! Like Grampa with his last poem' (The Night of the Iguana, 0112heu Descending, p. 111). This entrapment is predestined as the word 'goddam' ironically implies; it can be thought of as the fate from which there is no escape. Thus, like the iguana, the three characters' subterranean worlds are entrappednot but the within space within themselves. only In fact, monologues,the play's setting, the night and the metaphor of world of the three charactersas the techniquesby shadow frame the subterranean interior the the characters' playwright establishes which spaces.It is important to define these techniqueswhich other critics highlight Thomas P. Adler in 'Before the Fall and After' (1997) arguesthat, like the iguana 'caught and tied under the verandahfor much of the play', Shannon'has "cracked up", feels desperateand is "at the end of [his] rope", but "still has to try to go on, to continue"' (Roudan6, p. 121). For Adler Shannon suffers a tension between 'wanting to exist on some

but alwaysbeing forcedinsteadto "fantasticlevel" that admitsthe unexplainable, realisticplane' (p.123).Drawing on Adler's view, operateon the more mundane resorting to the Costa Verde hotel, Shannonachievesnumbing peace in the hammockdrinking the rum-coco.Previously,caughtand punished by his mother

164
his for finding pleasurethrough the act of masturbation, Shannonhas suppressed sexuality until it has become part of his subterraneanworld which he denies. Ironically, Shannontries to help others realise the horrors and fears of the world, but he still cannotface his own underworld! 5 To illustrate further, in his verbal monologue at the end of Act Three, Shannon goes down deep into his subterraneanworld openly onto the stage. Searchingfor horrors in the outside world, Shannonis blind to look inside himself his horrors. interior This his and confused shows a vague understandingof own at long incomplete in his by his sentences subterranean world, represented monologue. Moreover, the many ellipses in the play show his fragmentary

thoughts and mental distraction. He acknowledges that he first 'faced it in that nameless country' but he has a belief that he must expose this underworld to 'others', especially his tour ladies, as a part of his role as missionary (The Night of the Iguana, OrpheusDescending,p. 112). He recognisesthat 'fast decay' is always 'a thing of hot climates, steamy, hot, wet climates' (p. 112). As he states in his by Shannon to this tries vainly escape subterranean world resorting to monologue, seducing'a lady or two'. Shannon'ssubterranean world requires decoding further by looking at the ghostly image that is associatedwith his interiority in the play. In fact, this image is embedded within the metaphor of shadow. Adopting a Jungian Shannon's Levin that the closer shadow 'comes to the surface argues perspective, it below level he battles to the the repress of awareness' of consciousness, more

43 Williams mentions in conversation with Studs Terkel in 1961 that such concern is part of Shannon'sdeep social consciencethat reflects the character's deep awareness of social inequalities, deal lies (Devlin, 'under he tour to the the places where a great surface of cities' conducts public as pp.80-81).

165 (Levin, p.88). She addsthat 'when Shannongets a glimpse of his shadow,he tries to eradicate its presenceby casting it out of his mind - and literally by throwing drive it (p. 88). Levin the to at spook away' associatesthe shadow with objects imperfection otherness, and the subconscious alter-ego. Ironically, negativity, Shannonthinks that the spirit lies outside him: as he puts it, 'the spook is in the rain forest' CEhe Night of the Iguana, OrpheusDescending,p.98). Until now Shannon has been unable to create a fruitful synthesisto world, and the only avenueavailable for escapethe entrapmentof this subterranean him is to stay in the tropical Costa Verde with Maxine. In his acceptanceof Maxine's conditions at the end of the play, however, are the seedsof Shannon's is between his He to able make a compromise of subterranean world. acceptance his interiority and the demands of the exterior space of Maxine's territory. He by Maxine's her his 'place to approving conditions sexuality make accepts least. And you can take care the to the middle-aged ones at male clientele, attractive (p. 117). insists At Williams the the them' that the end of play, are with of women on 'the need for accepting and embracing, rather than denying or outrightly

human is "unlighted the side" of nature: not everyone capableof condemning, to and existingupon the otherworldlyplaneof a Hannah'(Roudand, transcending is in in This 'need' 125: this the read of chapter part my emphasis). relationto p. Shannon's and compromise eventualrealisationof the possibility of a synthesis betweenhis interiority and the exterior space.As I will show, in accepting he affirms his subterranean Maxine'sconditions, world. look deepinside Hannahfunctionsas a catalystthat helps Shannon Thinking of his dramaticworks asa struggle himselfto find his own interior space. to achieve 'cathartic purity', Williams claims in his conversation with Jeanne

166 Williams' that in Iguana,Hannahis Fayardin 1971in 'Meeting with Tennessee her life for is unableto of as a about view struggle right purity while Shannon 'achievehis quest and will never finish it' (Devlin, P.211). As Ralph F. Voss in MagicalMuse:Millennial EssUson Tennessee Williams (2002),Hannah argues hasfollowedShannon's travels, perilouspath,what Hannahcalls 'the subterranean thejourneysthat the spooked and bedevilledpeopleare forcedto take throughthe unlightedsidesof their nature'. Shehas 'outlastedher spook,her "blue devil", by
paying close attention to the world around her rather than focusing on herself (Voss, p. 127). However, the two critics dismiss the fact that Hannah confronts Shannon with her spirit-oriented integrity. Although she is subconsciously against any physical contact with men, this does not disgust her: in fact, nothing disgusts her 'unless it is unkind, violent' (The Night of the Iguana, OjPheus Descending,

p.

46 107). Voss's

analysis supportsthis line of argument, he finds that 'spirit, in the

is body and therefore accepting of, and at peace with, herself' accepting of play, (Voss, p. 128). In contrast to Voss' view, this does not help Hannah to come to terms with her own problems: ultimately she has to move on after helping Shannon free himself.

Adler arguesthat Hannahhas: her dark undergone personal night - whether it involved coming to terms with her solitary sexual condition or an awarenessof her limited artistic talent Williams leavesambiguous- but she successfully"started down" and beat back her own "blue devils" (Roudan6,p. 122).

46Hannah's ability to accept others with no senseof disgust draws a contrast to Williams' early plays where his charactersare projected onto the cycle of rejection which maintains their selfconfinement,as is the caseof Blanche in Streetcar.

167 For Hannah, as my reading demonstrates,her art is the therapy for realising a balancebetweenher interiority and the exterior space.Through her art she can give outward form to the subterraneanworld. She shareswith Shannonthe ability to acceptthe horror and the fears of the world; yet, unlike Shannon,sheacknowledges her own interior horror and faults. As a result, her art gives shapeto the moral code that nothing human disgusts her 'unless it's unkind, violent' (The Night of the Iguana. OrpheusDescending,p. 107). As a portraitist, Hannah observesand probes deeply into her subjects to portray their subterraneaninteriority; through her art

hasaccess Hannah to the subterranean world of the othercharacters.

Asked about the resemblances between his characters, Williams classifiesHannah as a characterwho 'had to passthrough the tunnel of despair.She is a Blanche purified of confusion and sensuality.Hannah is nearly detachedfrom life; she feels for others; sheacceptseverything from others' (Devlin, 1986,p.209).

However, unlike Blanche who fails to control the desire which confines her,
Hannah succeedsin doing that. Hannah's own story of her 'love experience' is a its in Adler its 'in this this. views story as shocking, real example of own way unvarnished expression of what she regards as an almost unbearable depth of loneliness, seldom encountered' (Roudand, p. 124: my emphasis).Responding to Shannon'squestion of whether she ever had a 'love experience, Hannahpensively

tells of[two] events in her life: of fleeing as a young girl from an unwanted

handuponher leg in a movie theatre;andmuch later in her life, at the

expenseof moving beyond her normal reticence,of accommodatingthe desire of the underwearfetishist out in a boat for a piece of her clothing he could hold while achieving orgasm(Roudand,p. 124).

168

Hannahfeels free to talk about her subterranean world by retelling this 'love experience' to Shannon.Her attitude is revealed on the stage through her with the imageof the tied iguana(TheNight of the Iguana,Orpheus confrontation his subterranean Desce "din , p.107).In Act Three,while Shannon verbalises world
openly onto the stage,at the samemoment Hannahtakes a closer look at the iguana beneaththe verandah.Exposedto the exterior horror manifestedby this tied animal, unlike other ladies in Shannon's tour who continue to avoid facing their ugly

subterranean world, Hannahrushes'the length of the verandahto the wooden

steps' to be face to face with the iguana: her symbolic subterranean world (p. 112). interiority helps her In fact, Hannah's acceptanceof her subterranean devise tactics to expose the exterior space. This is visualised implicitly by her symbolic invasion of the exterior. From Hannah's initial appearancewe are introduced to the territorial aspect of place in the play. If the Costa Verde hill is Maxine's territory, the stagedirection visualises Hannah's coming to the hilltop as an invasion. Like an invader she creeps to the place, without welcome or even

licence The is by from Costa Verde to the owner. enter offered acknowledgment her that there's'plenty of room hereout-of-season-like Shannon who assures now'
(p. 18). Hannah's presenceappearsat first like disaster,as an earthquakethat shakes the place. This is signalled through the theatrical techniques on the stage: her is hilltop by falling to the the accompanied coming of a coconut and the lamentation-like screaming of the parrot, where 'a coconut plops to the ground; a parrot screams at a distance' (p. 18). The visual image of the falling coconut hypnotic hilltop, the threat the that the atmosphere of pervades represents while the

in directions figurative invasion Hannah's the stage scream predicts parrot's of Maxine'sterritory. Both visual and auralimagesanticipate the threatof Hannah's

169

invasion,andthe harsh'bird cries soundin the rain forest' to signalHannah's war

hilltop (p. Maxine's 27). on In terms of Hannah's territorial invasion of place, Act Two witnesses the first explicit verbal clash between Maxine and Hannah, where Maxine tries to force Hannahand her grandfatherto move by calling the Casade Hu6spedes. When the appearanceof Shannon at the top of the path draws Maxine and Hannah's attention it breaks their verbal exchange. On the stage, Shannon appearsas prey that the two women fight to capture. Maxine perceiveshim when he appearsat the

Hannah's top of the hill asbooty that shemight loseto Hannah. threatto Maxineis
is light, described in the stage by technique theatrical the of which maximised direction as a 'hot light' portraying Maxine as a warrior who is involved in a war (p. Shannon 41). over The stage direction in this act emphasisesa territorial battle between Maxine and Hannah, with Hannah as a visual (although weaker) 'counterpart'. Drawing on this metaphor, in the stage directions Hannah is describedas having a

foughtfor' (p.41).Her inability 6 of the refugeshehasunsuccessfully stoicaldespair to conquerthe exterior spaceis emphasised as she is forcedto take a backward
for her her defeat. The to a shut moment acknowledge clenching eyes step, the mood of war, with words such terminology usedin the stagedirection generates for' 'power line'. 'counterpart', 'refuge' 'fought Such a vocabulary suggests and as the war-like atmospherewhich parallels the Germantourists' report of the Battle of Britain. Significantly, news of the Battle of Britain follows immediately after the

visual sketch of Maxine and Hannah as two warriors involved in a war for
Shannon.Act Two begins with a coppery light but ends with more peaceful silver

170 light; following Hannah's retreat the war imagery also decreases towards the end

of the act.
At the beginning of Act Three, Hannah doesnot involve herself in the in action, remaining her cubicle and leaving Maxine to control the scene.Hannah views Maxine as a dominant figure; even though the screento her cubicle is open, she feels compelled to stay there. Towards the end of this act Hannah's tactics in her territorial fight with Maxine have changed: she admits indirectly to Maxine's

domination Hannah of the place.Furthermore, evenasksMaxine for help to put an

end to the Germans' negative attitude towards Shannon: she goes to Maxine with in the exterior childish complaints about the Germans.This proves her helplessness place where everything is surveyedand dominated by Maxine. She begins to adopt a different attitude towards Maxine, admitting her failure to challenge Maxine's territorial domination. In this way, Act Three witnesses a remarkable shift in

Hannah'sattitude as she retreatsin the face of Maxine's territorial dominance.

What Hannah concludes is that her interest in Shannonis a kind of 'sympathetic

bodily contact between interest'which doesnot demand them. In spite of the overt identification between Hannah and her
different Nonno type of subterranean a experiences world, expressed grandfather, in the effort to give voice to his poem. There is also a close link between Nonno, is iguana, iguana. Nonno by his Like the tied the throat unable to finish his last and iguana is the thus, symbolically, when releasedNonno's voice is set free and poem: his 'excited mumble louder' in he completeshis ending grows a sudden shout as ...

long awaitedverse(p.116).Unleashing (previously the iguanausing the machete

used for cutting the rum-coconuts) Shannonsymbolically frees Nonno's voice, as the old man finishes his poem almost immediately. Shannon's act of grace frees

171 Nonno's voice to releasehis one last poem. This is also associated with a changein the old man's physicality as a visual image of this releaseon the stage;the crawling movement that characterisedNonno throughout the play has been replaced by an image of him wheeling 'himself out of his cubicle on to the verandah' (p. 114). The unleashing of the iguana also initiates a marked change in Shannon. Following immediately the completion of Nonno's poem, Maxine holding the rum-coco shell which foreshadowsher conquestof the stage appearson Shannon.The play ends as it began when Shannonmade his way up the hill to be

is him. by Therum-cocoshecarries, Maxine: to she now able control with received

its hypnotic effect on Shannon,symbolisesthe hold she now has over him. Maxine accepts Shannon only on her own territorial terms, allowing him to help her by for 'the women' that accompany the middle-aged 'the caring place' manage is (p. 117). Ironically, the suggestion that these middle-aged clients and visitors is drawn towards. This hang Shannon young around with women whom clients implies that Shannon'sfuture with Maxine is as a 'helper' (not a 'companion') and is linked to him enjoying the young women. Meanwhile, Maxine will also make the (p. 'the 117). In other words, Shannon's to male clientele' place attractive is his his Maxine's territory conditional on of acceptance of acceptance helper his freedom As the a and not manager a of place, sexual world. subterranean be in interest the young women will permitted, while Maxine indulges in her and interest by her in middle-agedmen. continuing sexual world subterranean Like Hannah, Maxine is capable of creating a balance between her subterraneanworld and the exterior space. The physical visualisation of this balance is embodied on the stagethrough the 'pushing-up' movement adopted by

Pushing Nonno in his wheelchair, first appearance Hannah's Maxine andHannah.

172 on the stagesignals this ability to get people 'up' figuratively and spatially. This is symbolisedby her understandingof the exterior space,which is why the play ends with Hannahon the hilltop. On the other hand, Maxine mirrors this ability to adapt the place to her own interiority. As the owner of the exterior territory, the Costa Verde hotel, Maxine literally and figuratively gets Shannonback up the hill and is help Shannonachieve the balancebetween his interiority and the exterior to ready space. Adler espouses this idea of relating the two characters.He thinks that Ijust as Hannah had to push the wheelchair-bound Nonno up the hill, so, too, Maxine whose face now "wears a faint smile heads the suggestive of carved ... ... of Egyptian or Oriental deiti&' will "get [Shannon] back up the hill"' (Roudand, p. 125). However in my reading, to a greater extent than Hannah, Maxine is able to hover freely between her interior and exterior spaces.It seemsas if her territorial dominance of space,which Hannah fails to achieve as the early discussion of the territorial invasion shows, maintains this balance between the two worlds. After a lengthy struggle with Hannah's territorial invasion, Maxine settlesdown at the end of the play, with Nonno's poem helping the place regain its peaceand balance.At this moment, Maxine appearsunusually 'around the front of the verandah', instead of the back of the verandahas she has as all other occasionsin the play (The Night Orpheus Iguana. Descending,p. 116). This epitomisesthe surveillance of her the of spatial territory after Hannah's initial assaulton it. In fact, she seemsrelaxed for the first time in the play as she preparesfor a night swim wearing a faint smile. While the night 'has mellowed her spirit', Maxine is compared to 'Egyptian or Oriental

deities' and for once there is no comparison with Hannah(p.116). In contrast, Hannahadoptsa neutralattitudetowardsthe scenewhereshe stands'motionless

173

behindthewicker chair' andgraduallywithdrawsquietly from the scene 'out of the

moon's glare', leaving the spaceto Maxine (p. 116). The sceneonce more becomes Maxine's territory when sheignores Hannah's presence. The division of duties dictated by Maxine maintains her territorial triumph, and imposes her rules over the inhabitants of the Costa Verde hotel. Choosing to stay in the hotel, Shannon must accept the conditions of Maxine's territorial space; he realises 'that's what' he can do, although there is really no for him (p. 117). Chuckling happily, Shannon approves of avenue available other his fate in the hope that he can now expresshis sexuality freely and have Maxine as a 'drinking companion. As a 'defrocked tour guide' unable to go back to Texas, Shannon takes the other path with Maxine 'half leading, half supporting him' (p. 117). Shannoncannot leave with Hannah, whose quiet presenceat the end of the failure Hannah's Maxine's triumph to provide a refuge for and own play confirms

Shannon.
Reading the fluctuating mental space presented through abstract is interesting developing the the notion of spatial an way of play of readings definite Embrey 'a For the creates contrastbetweenEast and West, in play reversal. fatalism Eastern the of stoicism and attitudes are offered as a positive which alternative to the Western preoccupationswith guilt and suffering' (Tharpe, 1977, denies fact However, Embrey's 332). the that the ideological dualities argument p. in in West East the play spite of the spatial absenceof either. and arc presented of PresentingEast and West as fluctuating mental places explored through these two conflicting ideologies, Iguan establishesa radical concept of spacethat is present

East spaces and absentat the sametime. Yet the two absentgeographical and West - arc implicated in the play through the various characters.On the one hand,

174 Hannah is initiated into oriental philosophies that represent Eastern ideology. Though the Orient representsan absentspace,not stagedin the play as an exterior its Hannah dominates through the thought of the play. In fact, the philosophy space, in is basedon Williams' own travel in Asia. the philosophy presented play oriental In one conversation with Jeanne Fayard, he states that although he has never studied this philosophy, through his visit to the Orient, he spoke 'with Buddhist in I monks. was Singaporeone day and I visited the House of the Dead' (Devlin, p.210). On the other side of the divide, the failure of the Western model to find a balancebetweenfatalism and the individual demandsof Shannon'sdilemma serves to emphasise the failings of Western ideology. Adler highlights the in fatalism the play, in which charactersare consumedin their cycle significance of of despairand constantguilt: no matter to what degreean individual is good, s/he is

be In Western fatalism, is God to the terms punished. of a 'senile predestined still blamingthe world andbrutallypunishes for his own faults delinquent all he created in construction'Qe Night of the Iguana,O&pheus Descending, p.52). In the light Nazi family be the thought of as a representative this argument, can of of the ideology,particularlyits sadisticanddestructive Western doomed nature.Not only but their 'Rubensesqueproportions and Wagnerian they caricatures, are the supposed triumph of Westerncivilization. Embrey exuberance'represents in this the way he describes this family's 'boisterousness succinctly summarises to Hannah'spoised 'demeanor'(Tharpe, and frenetic activity' as a counterpart 1977,p.333).Their songthat is heardat the endof the play illuminates the cruelty Western the the world. of violence and

175 Ultimately, the play conveys a superiority of East over West in the way that Eastern ideology proves its validity over its Western counterpart.Unlike Hannah's words which are given priority in concluding the play, the Nazis do not actually speak at all. But ending with the Nazi song, Williams demonstratesthe futility of Western ideology by not including it within the body of the drama. The song seems an addition just to convey that this ideology exists, but cannot be approvedof. Moreover, written in Gennan, the song representsa racist attitude that

it of the universalityof Hannah deprives final words:'Oh, God,can't we stopnow?

Finally? Pleaselet us. It's so quiet here, now' (The Night of the Iguana, Olpheus Descending,p. 117). Within the terms of my thesis, the interior entrapment of the characters' subterranean world within exterior spacecontributes to the marginality of the chief charactersin the play. This conflict is visualised on the exterior space of the stage.For instance,in Shannon'scase,he constantlyjerks savagelyback and forth on the stage,striking himself with the chain that suspends his 'gold cross' as if his body is respondingto the spiritual confinement that entrapshis subterranean is functions Hannah It who as a catalyst, or an agent, to free Shannonfrom world. his confinement. Throughout the courseof the play, Hannah helps to free Shannon from what Embrey calls: 'his obsessive,self-destructive notions so that he can move completely out of the previous pattern of his life, find a measureof peace, and establisha healthy sexualrelationship' (Tharpe, 1977,p.331: my emphasis). However, the only effective therapy to free Shannon from this

is confinement not only his freedomfrom his 'self-destructive notions' but rather
the acknowledgment of his subterraneaninterior world. By the end of the play, Hannah's suggestion of endurance as a key factor that can help in this

176

is therapeutic for him. In other words, when she tells him 'he acknowledgment learn simply to endure the tension and terror that are part of his life', must finally Hannah'ssuggestion Shannon of endurance will lead to self-acceptance: individual what an cannotchange(p.332). Acceptingthe uglinessof the accepts
subterraneanworld through endurance and living beyond despair are ways of defeating the confinement and the imprisonment of the interior space. Embrey by this argument pointing out that: elucidates Hannah also makes two other important suggestions.She tells him he must Icam simply to endurethe tension and the terror that arc part of his life. Later she advises him to go beyond the enduranceto acceptance; bizarre incidents the two that compromise her "love after recounting life", shetells him "the moral is oriental. Accept whatever situation you cannot improve (p.363). This idea of 'qndurance' is a persuasive interpretation, especially as Williams he is thought the theme the that main of play 'how to live beyond despair admitted and still live' (Devlin, p. 104).

In this chapter I have looked at the spatial reversal in Iguan by it contextualising within the two spatial opposites of interior and exterior space. This representsa marked departure from the ways in which identities and conflict between individuals were constructedin the earlier short story and one-actversion of the play, as discussed in previous parts of this chapter. Exploring how the characters' interiority is intruded by the exterior space in the three-act play is crucial for developing a territorial reading of the text. In fact, emphasising the

177 function of the visual images and objects to highlight this spatial reversal helps to challenge conventional approachesto 1961 Iguan . It is the dramatic qualities of Iguana that makessuch visual imagesso interestingto decode. The relation of the minorities' confinement to the spatial reversal in lRuan encourages various avenuesof research.However, such relation cannot be defined simply, especially when dealing with Williams' use of stagecraft that legitimises the reversed interior/exterior conflict by presenting a spatial synthesis where the duality is rebalanced as a solution to the characters' confinement. Achieving this balance in 1961 Iguan the play representsa turning point in ,

Williams' careerin relation to the developmentof minority issues:a departurefrom the strategiesof presenting identifiable minorities in his early plays and a shaping influence on dramatising the experience of marginality in his later work. In the following chapter, an understandingof the development of minority as a concept will be pursued by discussing further the shift towards the experience of marginality that framesthe minority question in Williams' later plays.

178 CHAPTER III

Poster painted by the author in 2007 to visualise the idea of 'one-ness' as a suggestedvision of liberation in. Kingdom of Earth (1968). It was one of the finalist poster-presentations at the University Research in 2007. of Leicester Festival of Postgraduate

179

CHAPTER III, PART I

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'

LATER PLAYS AFTER THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

I suddenly saw the light - that there were enough long speeches, which is my speciality, unfortunately, and that at least five or six pagesearlier in the act could be reduced to a sort of a dynamic, you know - rather than talk - it would be more effective that way. I realisedthere was too

much talk. I meantherewere speeches of five lines wherehalf a line

could have done it. Right now I'm engagedin trying to say - trying to expressa play more in terms of action. Not in terms of physical action; I that I've mean, in sort of gunfire dialogue instead of the long speeches always relied on before. Let me say that I dependedtoo much on language- on words (1962 interview with Tennessee Williams by Lewis

Frunk,in Saddik,1999,p.4).

The above quotation suggeststhat not only does the defrocked reverend of The Night of the I guan T. Lawrence Shannon,begin to seethe light when the curtain , falls at the end of the play in 1961, but around that time Tennessee Williams too began to see the light. However, Williams' light is not that of Shannon: the

from light illuminates his interior him liberating that reflective subterranean world, his long confinement within a conflicted exterior space. Rather it is the

180 retrospective light which enables Williams to see his dramatic works from a different perspective.Here, the very word 'perspective' suggestsa change in the mode of expressingthe themes that had long concernedWilliams throughout his dramatic career,rather than a completely new set of themes.His drama,at the end of the 1960s still explores the theme of minority, but unlike his early plays which by and large deal with this in relation to an identifiable minority group, in his later works Williams moves towards drarnatisingthe experienceof marginality itself. To he this, achieve startsto explore this experiencein all its complexity in relation to a small group of characters alienated from their social world and suffering from varying degreesof anxiety. This is not to imply that in these plays Williams aligns himself with certain schoolsor movements.He does reflect a generaltrend in American thought in the 1960s, shifting his focus from the individual to a broader view of social relationships,but he goesbeyond identity politics by choosingto shift his dramatic focus from a specifically marginalized group to deal with the marginality experience on a general level, where a group of characterswork collectively to

reachtheir liberation.Herethe isolatedindividualscometogetherto countertheir

solitary alienation. In this way the conceptof marginality becomesmore abstract,to do with the characters'interacting to createtheir own spaceof liberation. It takes in these plays the form of a mental fluctuating space that is created between two marginalized or confined characterswho come together to be liberated from their 47 interior confinement. This place will be referred to as 'the circle of 'one-ness'.

47The 'one-ness' is a term used by Williams in the text of In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969) on the mouth of its main character,Mark Conley: 'there was always a senseof division till! Gone! Now Williams, Volume 7, p. 17). The sameterm is absolute'one-ness' withP (The Theatreof Tennessee used by Albert E. Kalson in 'TennesseeWilliams Enters Dragon Country' (1973), however he developsthis term only in relation to Mark's words in the play on his 'one-ness' with his art which also readsin relation to the "one-ness" which 'the artist must find in himself (Kalson, p.63).

181
The use of the word 'circle' signifies the circularity of the marginality experience in theseplays, where the charactersresort to projecting anxiety onto eachother and have no choice but to go on within an endless circle of anxiety and entrapment. This idea is visualised by certain exterior items on the stage,such as round tables, through which this circle is created. The use of the word 'one-ness' does not suggest that characters do not come into conflict with each other, but rather signifies the integration of two charactersand their realisation that, despite their differences, they need each other to cope with the exterior hostile space that confines them.

To represent this experience, Williams becomes more abstract in representation by adopting dramatic forms beyond language. He recognises language's futility as an attempt to represent experience and language now becomesa mechanismof entrapment.This is becausethe characters' experienceis so abstract that it cannot be expressedon linguistic and verbal levels. In their attempt to be free of language, the charactersin Williams' later plays resemble those in the Theatre of the Absurd which flourished in Europe and, to a certain extent, in America in the 1950sand 1960s.This shift in direction marks Williams' departurefrom realism towards freer forms of expression,replacing his long poetic speeches and monologueswith 'a more minimalistic approachto drama language' (Saddik, 1999, p.81). With the shift in dramatic expression, the marginality experiencein Williams' later plays is modified to embracewith 'anti realistic' or 'free' dramatic forms. In other words, Williams' departurefrom the realism of his earlier plays includes a changein his attitude to characters,action, themes,plot and language. To illustrate further, in these later plays Williams dramatises his charactersas representativeof certain themes or ideas, rather than as self-confined

182 characters. Consequently, marginality starts to operate on characterization in relation to the way the play is set up spatially. To realise this, Williams usescertain visual and aural deviceswhich suggestthat silence is an important tool to challenge the entrapment of language, and that the body is vital in the representationof marginality. Nonetheless,Williams' new perception of languageas adoptedin his later plays does not receive much attention or appreciation from critics. In general the plays written after Iguan have been overlooked or consideredas evidencethat the 1960s and 1970s were decades of deterioration for Williams. With the exception of a couple of positive attempts to view them as 'triumphs of the American theatre', little positive scholarshiphas been so far published. Philip C. Kolin does offer a positive account of Williams' later plays in his edited collection The Undiscovered Country: The Later PIgys of Tennessee Williams (2002). This brings together fifteen essays that discuss Williams' late plays as 'highly experimental and carefully crafted for theatre of mind and body', and which offer an original insight into Williams' later canon post-figuan (Kolin, 2002, p.3). Kolin calls his book the 'undiscovered country, elusively difficult to edit, classify, and interpret', citing the 'uneasiness'and 'embarrassment' it evokes from the 'critical establishment' (p. 1), while Annette Saddik, in The Politics of Reputation (1999), recognises the negative reception of Williams' later plays: 'by the 1970s, the reviewers had essentially given up on Williams, altogether expecting him to fail' (Saddik, 1999,p.29). However, thesestudiesare inevitably incomplete.For example,Allean Hale in 'Confronting the Late Plays of TennesseeWilliams' (2002) believes Kolin's book is a 'seminal work offering the most recent scholarship. Seminal,

183 'wrote but final' Williams (Hale, 2003, 21). She thirtythat perhaps, p. states not nine plays whose titles we know', but she believes that 'there are at least twenty more out there to be "discovered" in various archives, repositories, and private collections acrossthe nation' (p.21). In spite of the vast quantity of later plays from 1961 until Williams' death at the Elysee Hotel in 1983, they rarely achieve much critical recognition. Kolin arguesthat a 'truckload of them may still be unearthed' in fact to the that them print. His examples referring many of are unavailable include Kirche. Kutchen Und Kinder (1979, unpublished), THIS IS (unpublished) in Not A House Meant Stand (1982), to those only available and as examples of manuscript, accessto which is guarded by the Williams estate. However, these plays are still approached from within the same biographical perspective that developing fact blinds Williams' discussion that shroudsearlier plays, a of critical later language. if Williams' Kolin to thinks that plays approaches most not all of those in print and in manuscript - are still seen as 'nothing more (or less) than a performance of his Memoirs', where 'booze, drugs, the failed dreamsof an artist' influence the scripts (Kolin, 2002, p.2).

Quotingvariouscritics, Kolin sheds the light on their perceptions of theseworks as 'bornedirectly out of his life' as a 'blighted gay poetor debilitated in for W. E. denying his (C. Bigsby writing was a artist whom way of mortality' Modem AmericanDrama 1945-2000 (2000),p.65, in Kolin, 2002,p.2). Bigsby is his later judges instead Williams his He those critics views who plays. one of of look-alikes, however dissimilar their physical 'his characters as psychic Frdulein' in The Gnadiges Fraulein(1967)and appearances', suchasthe 'one-eyed (1972)and (everypredatorygay character'like Quentinin Small Craft WaraLngs (1980)(p.1). Mark in ChalkyWhite Substance

184 In Dialogue in American Drama (1971), Ruby Cohn shareswith other critics this biographical approachto Williams' later plays: 'Williams often usesthe same materials-phrase,theme, scene,or character' reworking them by 'expansion and comparison of the short works' (Cohn, p.97). She still places Williams within 'the Southern grotesquetradition' where he strives through his drama to 'establish the mythic importance of his grotesque' (pp.108-09). Cohn seesthe earlier plays within 'the realist convention of psychologically coherent characters, grotesque though they may be'. However, sheviews someof them - The GlassMenagerie,A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo and The Night of the Iguana - as imagery few theatrical the examples of of where a combination of verbal and conveys a 'symbolic resonancebeyond the realistic surface' (p. 121). She classifies later plays such as Slapstick Trndy (1966) and The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Her Any More (1963) as non-realistic where they still use 'crisp, colloquial dialogue' (p. 121).48Despite, her insightful examination of grotesquepatterns, she does not

dramatic form. free Williams' this to relate non-realistic aspect useof In Cohn's chapter 'Tennessee Williams: The Last Two Decades'
(1997), she praises the theatrical style of some of the later plays. However, she views his 'socio-political' views as 'naive', but not 'his stylistic range: the mocking rhymes and repetitions of Demolition' (Roudan6,p.233). Thomas P. Adler argues in 'The Dialogue of Incompletion: Language in TennesseeWilliams' similarly Later Plays' (1975), in referenceto three later plays: Small Craft Warnings (1972),

In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969) and Out CIX (1973). Adler focuseson the
soliloquy and 'most especially, on those experiments with syntactical patterns

48Cohn thinks that with a lesserdependencyon 'comparable colloquialism'. Williams moves in his later plays towards a 'combination of realism and fantasy'. Hence,he seeks'a popular idiom, with a minimum of the pretentious images that spring so readily to the lips of his garrulous grotesques' (Cohn, p. 125).

185 which suggest a new direction in Williams' theatrical technique', to offer an insightful vision of his innovations in dramatic language (Adler, 1975, p.48). Referring to absurdistplaywrights, Adler recognisesWilliams' use of languageto (expressmetaphysics'is different from that of others49He arguesthat Williams: . writes about people who, rather than [going] to extremes to evade communication, crave it obsessivelyas a meansof breaking out of the that self and making contactwith the other, of overcoming the aloneness is the human condition and entering into a saving communion of shared humanity (Adler, p.49). This positions Williams against other absurdist playwrights, rather than aligning him with their attemptsto evadethe entrapmentof language. In fact, Williams first usesthis style in some of his earlier plays from the 1940sand 1950s such as Menagerie and Camino Real. Nevertheless,the plots of his later plays have been 'assailed,brandedas fragmentary, a rambling discourse

toward climax' (Arthur Gunz in Realmsof the Self with little or no movement
(1980), p.22, in Kolin, 2002, p.2). However, Williams' dramatic movement away from realism does not situate him as a dramatist 'in line with Artaud, Beckett, or Pinter, rather he was diminished as uncreatively derivative' (p.2). Although he admired the writing style of theseabsurdists,he views their theatre as unappealing, preferring the 'romantic fantasy' and the 'very far-out plays' (Saddik, 1999, p.77). In fact, there is only a fine line betweenWilliams' later plays and the 'anti realistic
49Absurdist playwrights include Samuel Beckett, Eugene lonesco and Harld Pinter. Beckett is the most sceptical of the three towards the 'continued potency of the word to deal with ... the universal, metaphysical silence' (Karen F.Stein in 'Metaphysical silence in Absurd Drama' (1971), p.422, in Adler, p.48). While lonesco thinks that 'there is something to communicate,but it is very nearly incommunicable', Pinter differs from other playwrights in his belief that the people's anguish'more often than not derives from within' and is not imposed from the 'indifferent world without' (Adler, p.49).

186 plays' of the absurdists.Like them he minimises the action, rejecting 'an emphasis on the disclosuresof plot' in order to focus on the experiencethat can be conveyed through silence 'or evoked through fragmented,inarticulate momentsof speech',to accessthe 'meaning that lies in the gaps between linguistic expressions' (P.78). Although kabuki theatre and the forms of dramatic realism that mark his 1963play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore suggestWilliams' first break away from realistic dramatic forms since Camino Real, he develops his new perception of reality much further through the alternative structuresof later plays: the one-act plays including Dragon CojLntry: A Book of Plays (1970), 1 Can't ImagLne

Tomorrow (1970) and In the Bar of a To4o Hotel. These exhibit a 'linguistic reality which is rapidly deteriorating toward silence', while other plays such as Mutilated and The GnAdiges Fraulein have been described as 'attempts at an absurdist dramatic style' (Saddik, 1999, p.78). These unrealistic forms are developedby other late plays such as StepsMust Be Gentle (1981), Lifeboat Drill (1979) and Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws (1981). However, for Williams the break away from realism is a new pattern of writing: he told Donald Spoto 'I'm writing differently now' (Elliot Martin to Donald Spoto in The Kindness of Strangers(1997), p.331, in Saddik, 1999,p.4 1). Some critics do recognise this 'difference' but view it as a kind of 'outrage', like Linda Dorff in 'Theatrical Cartoons: TennesseeWilliams' late, "Outrageous" Plays' (1999) who examinesit as a 'gradual evolution of dramaturgic elements which had been present in his work from the beginning' (Dorff, 1999, p. 13). She gives The Case of the Crushed Petunia (1941) as an example of his early farce-satire(Dorff, p. 13) in which the outrageis articulated through 'forms of

187 50 (p. 14). level farce' 'function on a of meta-mimesis' parody, parable and which However, unlike other critics she believes that the biographical approach to Williams' later plays devalues: implications form ignore[s] the of metadramatic parody as a serious and the works - namely, their critique of the theatre-as-world - and belonged to the realist tradition, though the proceed[s] as plays attempting to divine individualist, psychological, and thematic meanings from anti-mimetic works that subvertpsychological processes (p. 14). Dorff shares with Cohn her view of the 'grotesque' pattern of these plays. However, for Dorff this is seen as a reaction against the 'cold naturalism of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century naturalism and realism' (p. 16). Dorff moves further from Cohn's reading of Slapstic to explore the 'grotesquely animated cartoon' in The Gntifizes Frdulein; 'the outrageoustwo-dimensional action of the in 'most Kirche, Kuche Und Kinder; the understandable cartoon' animated outrageousplay', A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur (1979) and 'the potential of the outrageousplay-within-a-play' in THIS IS which foregrounds 'a metadramatic critique of the theatre' (p.26). Unlike Kolin, Saddik recognisesthat this dramatic movement toward freer and different dramatic forms is originally basedon Williams' early interest in 'anti realistic drama', visible from the beginning of his career in plays such as Glass Menagerie and Camino Real. Saddik relates his 'experimental later work' to the 'development of his prior interests rather than a random departure brought

50Dorff arguesthat the later plays all 'take as their subject a pre-existing dramatic form, convention or maxim that claims to mimetically represent a condition in the "rear' world and, through the doubleness'which establishes'the subject superimpositionof a metatheatricallevel that emphasises of meta-mimesisas drama about mimetic representation'(Dorff, 1999,p. 14).

188 about by excessive drug use, as is often argued' (Saddik, 1999, p.39). Quoting Williams, she argues that his movement from 'a dependenceon language - on words to more minimalistic dialogue does not necessarily indicate a shift away from realism'. Instead she describes him depending less on 'the ability of discursive languageto communicateaccurately and completely an idea of emotion "truth"', 'toward drama, the and moving assumption non resists realistic which -a that languageis able to representdirectly an objective reality' (p.40). These 'nonforms' realistic expressmeaningsthat can only be 'articulated through incomplete, fragmented dialogue and the silenceswhich surround it' (p.40). She elaborateson this by quoting a 1979 interview where Williams claimed he was striving for a new form in spite of reviewers' intoleranceof free dramatic method. As a whole, the critics still consideredhis later plays of the 1970sand 1980s as 'failures', and this is interpreted by recent scholarship as related to a 'nostalgia for the poetic realism which had establishedhis early reputation' (Kolin, 2002, p.6). This brought with it a tendency for critics to be blind to the new dramatic style of the late plays, which has been described as 'the cerebral the ... conscious, rational processesof the analyst, the symbolist, the abstract thinker' (Walter Kerr in 'A Touch of the Poet Isn't Enough to Sustain Williams' Latest Play' (1977), p.35, in Saddik, 1999, p.37). A hostile critical attitude towards Williams continued throughout his last two decades.For example, speaking to Elliot Martin, the producer of Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980), Williams insistedthat:

he was not writing the samekind of dramasas he had done earlier in his career [ ... ]I want to warn you, Elliot ... the critics are out to get me. You'll see how vicious they are. They make comparisons with my

189 earlier work, but I arn writing differently now (quoted in Saddik, 1999,

pAl).
This attitude of 'writing differently' starts in the 1960s, with an increasing suspicion of 'realism's desire to naturalize the relationship between stage presentation and outside world'. However, not until his last decade did this suspicionlead Williams to 'discover dramatic forms which examinedthe signifier's power to createrather than representreality' (p.74). With later plays, The GnadigesFraulein, Kingdom of Earth (1968), Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws and This is the Peaceable Kin2dom Good Luck fragile (1980), from dramatisation Williams characters of Qod) shifts completely a within a hostile exterior space, to dramatising the interiorities of marginalized homeless and rootless characters. Saddik supports this line of argument, stating that:

Williams was ready to move completely beyond psychological characterization and conventional moral ideology, beyond theatre as mimetic representation,and therefore his style becamemore concurrent with a focus of eclectic and immediate "happenings" of the 1960s to 1980s which emphasizedthe physical presenceof the sexualizedbody and the illusive energy of the spirit (p.7). However, the following discussionaims to go further than Saddik's focus on 'the sexualizedbody, in order to explore Williams' movement towards centralising the body and marginalising languagethrough the conceptof 'one-ness', which helps to explain his later characters' experience of marginality. Through this concept he

190
developsthe image of the body in his early plays as a subject of confinement and marginality, to becomeparadoxically a force of freedom and centrality. Although Williams' later plays share with Iguan the interrelation of body and spacein structuring the experienceof marginality, they develop the space and body conflict into an interior bodily conflict resulting from the characters' bodily confinement. Like the earlier plays, they 'still focus on a desire to escape here not only from a disturbing existencein which the charactersare trapped, but also from a dialogue which frustratesand alienatesthem' (Saddik, 1999,p.80). For Saddik these charactersare trapped within 'a private psychological world' rather than within 'a particular situation' (p.80).51 Drawing on Saddik's argument, languagefunctions here as a meansof entrapmentand confinement rather than an avenueof liberation from this bodily confinement. According to this argument,the only escapeis: silence and death, and they don't even seemto hope for anything to save or protect them. The panic, fear, and loneliness they experience postpone "the end" however, and the charactershave no choice but to "go on7lin an endlesscycle of representationwhich is linguistically and philosophically fragmented(p.80). This 'endless cycle of representation'will be read in this chapter as an experience of 'one-ness' created between two or more characters through bodily

their own interior bodily confinement.However, communication, in order to escape

This escape unlike Saddik'sview, this circle will be viewedas a means of escape.

51Saddik's examplesare Tom Wingfield of Menagerie and Blanche DuBois in Streetcar.

191 is anti realistic as it is establishedwithin the psycheof anothercharacterrather than within the social context. in Saddik's argument supportsthis view, as she thinks that Williams searches theseplays: to locate and directly representan absolute,intangible reality apart from an external reality which he once describedas "the -everydayhumdrum in his indicates different than a we saw world" subject of representation early work. While the ultimate goal of getting closer to a truth which for he language is from different the claimed exists outside of goal no his early realistic plays (Saddik, 1999,p.80). She addsthat in I Cannot Imadne Tomorroly, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, and The Two-Character Play (1973), he seeksto reach that goal 'through representationand exploration of the psychological processrather than through the representationof human interaction' (p.80). It is this 'psychological process' that I will focus on in this section of the thesis, to demonstrateWilliams' changedattitude to processes of marginality. and experiences I will examine this concept of 'one-ness' in relation to the last phase in in later Williams' transition the through the the work, minorities go of phaseof its developmentinto an experienceof marginality. The aim is to move beyond these critical perspectives of Williams' later plays to view them within his new in in be language This to examined of relation characterization. will perception frames language to that this questions relation of marginality, arguing perceptionof a different representationof marginality from that of his earlier plays. Here the experienceof marginality moves from the interrelation between charactersand the

192 way the play is set up spatially (as suggestedin Iguana) to the marginality of language and the centrality of the body. It is worth mentioning that this representationis developedthrough three phasesof Williams' late dramatic career: the late 1960s,the early 1970s and the late 1970s.As the emphasisis to explore chronologically the development of the concept of 'one-ness' in relation to the marginality experience, I will examine the plays in which this development is salient. These plays will include Kingdom of Earth, In the Bar of a Tojiyo-Hotel and Small Craft Warnings, and I will conclude the thesis with Vieux Carr6 (1977). My discussiontraces the developmentof 'one-ness' in Williams' dramatic worlds from an individual experienceto a communal one. In Kingdom of Earth we are

introduced between to the stages two characters, of creatingthe 'one-ness' until In

the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel the circle of 'one-ness' is developedinto an experienceof that the communal unity is an inmarginality. Then Small Craft WarninRssuggests between form of liberation and Williams as he explores moving beyond the margin by drarnatising 'one-ness' with God and the return to the self as the source of

liberation. salvation and

193

CHAPTER 111, PART H

KINGDOM OF EARTH (1968): THE TRANSITION FROM THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA TO TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'LATER PLAYS

The Night of the Iguana ends with Hannah's concept of 'home', a fluctuating mental spacethat is built between two people as a therapeutic alternative to the 52 characters' senseof entrapmentwithin exterior space. By building 'a nest in the heart' of Shannon,Hannah helps him endure and accept his subterranean world. With his 1968 play Kingdom of Earth (The Seven Descentsof Myrtle), Williams developsthis concept of home into the idea of 'one-ness' as a vision of liberation from the pressures his earlier plays. of self-imprisomnentthat characterise Kingdom of Earth introduces in stagesto the creation of this 'oneness' between Myrtle and Chicken. The experience of 'one-ness' stands for the fluctuating mental spaceestablishedbetweenthem through their physical contact as an outlet for their bodily confinement.This liminal spaceis where the experienceof marginality lies in this play. It is visualised by the 'kitchen table', aroundwhich the

is described. characters' movement

In this sense,the play signifies a dramatic transition regarding the minority experiencefrom Iguan into Williams' later plays. In Earth the experience of marginality takes a circular form where the charactersresort to projecting their anxiety and confinement onto each other; the play suggeststhat they have no choice but to hold to each other within the circle of 'one-ness'. However, Williams
52The reference here is to Hannah's words to Shannon in Iguana about her concept of 'home as being a thing that two people have between them in which each can in, live rest well, nest ... emotionally speaking' (The Night of the Iguana.OrpheusDescending,p. 101).

194 has not fully visualised the idea of a circle in Earth and he does not do so until In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel. This circularity is developedin Williams' later plays to focus on languageitself, which becomesfrustrating becauseit appearsto take the charactersnowhere. The action of the play takes place in a farmhouse in the Mississippi Delta, during the flooding season in early spring. The play openswith the arrival of Lot, a young man suffering from tuberculosis,returning to his childhood home with his new bride Myrtle, an ex-stripper and sometimewhore. They quickly encounter Lot's half brother, Chicken, an African-American who 'rules' over the place. The play depicts the entrapmentof thesethree characterswithin the houseafter a flood warning is issued.Throughout the play we are presentedwith contrastsbetweenthe two brothers: Lot is impotent and effeminate, while Chicken is heterosexual,and a strong and lusty 'wood-colt'. Unlike Chicken, who earnshis name by drinking the blood of a chicken on the roof, Lot coughs up blood out of his infected left lung becauseof TB. Lot has a special arrangementwith Chicken: Chicken runs the place for Lot, and the farm goes to him after Lot's death. The play ends with Myrtle involved in sexualintercoursewith Chicken on the kitchen table. They both witness Lot's death in the parlour, after he has resurrectedhis dead mother's image by wearing her clothes. The focus on Chicken as a black character has led critics to contextualise the play within discoursesof race and the liberal movementsof the 1960s. For example, Philip C. Kolin in 'Sleeping with Caliban: The Politics of Race in TennesseeWilliams' Kingdom of Earth' (1996), arguesthat whereas in Williams' earlier plays, people of colour are seen as 'the supernumerariesof Southern patriarchy', in this play the major role is given to 'a man of colour'

195
(Crandell, 1996a, p. 226). 53Kolin argues that the 'racial/ethnic presence lies outside the performative experience of a dominant culture', been has Chicken where
54

'marginalized'. This is seenas the major reasonwhy the play is rarely performed.

The play, as Kolin puts it, 'valorises anthropological claims that it is nearly impossible to identify racial traits by origin', and it 'challenges race ideology by destabilizing the "either/or" economy of colonialism and demoralizes such mythologies [power bases built upon racial differences] upon which racial 55 (Crandell, 23 0). David Savran in Communists. stereotypes are grounded' p. Cowboys. and Queers (1992) supports this line of argument, suggesting that Chicken's 'dark-complected' and 'foreign' looking features signify his power insteadof his marginality (Savran,p. 123). Although this study does not adopt a socio-political reading of the play, it is neverthelesssignificant to relate it to the broader transitions in American society and culture, as they impact upon the representation of marginality in Williams' drama. The summer of 1968 witnessed the assassinationof Martin Luther King, and the rising spirit of 'protest movements' which were in place

before 1968 againstthe Vietnam War's goals of colonisation(Crandell, 1996a,

56 229) Although the civil rights movement had grown steadily since the midp. . 1950s, the more turbulent mid-to late 1960s (against the backdrop of Vietnam) for the tensions between the characters in Earth, particularly a context provide
53The link here is to Suddenly Last Summer where the black boys who are unstagedcharacters are used by Williams as a symbolic referenceto visualise the image of the blacknessof Sebastian's self-consumption. 54Kolin relates this to the fact that the Broadway premiere of the play starred Harry Gurdino as Chicken, instead of a man of colour. Actually, it was not until 1975 with Princeton McCarty's production that two black actors, Garland Wright and David Pendleton,starred as Chicken. Kolin thinks that 'casting a person of color to play Chicken would unquestionably allow the script to foreground the social anxietiesof a dominant white culture' (See Crandell, 1996a,pp.230-31). 55In the spring of 1968 'these mythologies were tested in the fires of the streets,and at the Ethel Barrymore theatrewhere Williams' play premiered' (Crandell, 1996a,p.230). 56 Williams' himself 'made several public appearancesdenouncing the war' (Crandell, 1996a, p.229).

196 embodied by Chicken who is named 'Negro' and objects to the discrimination he faces. The context of 1968 helps to explain Williams' focus, but the play implies that the new social movementscan never get to grips with the complexity of human identity and communication. In other words, within the 1960s movementswhere the 'invisible America' startsto emerge,moving from margin to be centralized as a visible group, Williams focuseson his charactersin isolation by placing them in the remote setting of the farmhouseon the Mississippi Delta. Although Mississippi was the centre of racial politics at the time of the play, Williams' main concern is the spatial entrapment of his characters within the farmhouse with a flood's threat outside. His main focus is the experienceof these characterswithin the house in relation to the concept of 'one-ness' rather than on their interaction with the exterior social space which is still racist to the coloured Chicken. For instance, apart from the opening scenewhere Chicken is subjectedto the racist commentsof a white family before they flee the flood, Chicken and the other two charactersdo not have any interaction with the exterior place. Although reading the play within this socio-political framework of is interesting politics racial an point of research,the focus here is on reading this experience within the frame of the characters' interiority and their movements within the dramatic spaceof the play. This is not to imply that Williams does not engagewith the ideasinforming the social movementsthat prevailed the time era of the play, but rather he transcendsand questionsthem. With the failure of the liberal in movements achieving its objectives, Williams in Earth is pervasivein his attempt to reversethe dominant identity politics by centralising the coloured Chicken as the force of light and liberation within his 'one-ness' with Myrtle as will be further discussedin this part of the chapter.

197
The play establishes two main spatial areas in which the action takes from kitchen, is between bedroom Myrtle the the seeking survival and place. placed the coming destruction of the flood. Her only escape is to the stairs where her Within liberated her these self. spatial represent gradually vertical movements spatial areas, the two male characters struggle for the attentions of Myrtle who

an outlet onto which they project their anxiety and confinement. represents

57On the

by in his he is (which hand, Lot to tries and cross-dressing revive one confined past imitating his dead mother). On the other hand, Chicken is entrapped within his African-American heritage. However, during the course of the play, Chicken Here Myrtle. in by his 'one-ness' with confinement achieving succeeds escaping for liberation-58 formula tone-ness'is established as a suggested These issues of confinement and liberation will be explored by decoding the stage directions and reading bodily and spoken language,as well as images. A close reading of the stage visualisation of the two visual and aural 'onebe discussed in Myrtle to the of concept relation will characters'conflict over
57The triangle in the characterizationis reminiscent of Streetcar 'in which the widow of the dead homosexual[Lot] is possessed carnally by her ape-like brother in law [Chicken]. Lot is not yet dead before Chicken breaks through Myrtle's feeble protestations just as Stanley cruelty degrades however, the faded belle is less the malleable wife (an ex-show girl) than she is the Blanche ... "exotically pretty" husband,who, with his pale eyes and dyed blond hair, dresses up like a ghost of his [Southern] mother in her youth and dies in her beloved parlour' (Boxill, pp.153- 54). 58 One stereotype of African-American men is that sexuality and violence are closely related. However, Williams does not perpetuate this stereotype, but rather reverses it by dramatising Chicken's sexuality and violence as a way for Myrtle's salvation through her 'one-ness' with him where he plays the role of her saviour figure. The reading of Williams' letters and memoirs proves that Williams does not have a racist attitude. For example in his letter to Audrey Wood from New Orleans,November 22,1946, he refers to the 'Washington race-discrimination deal' and he 'added his name to the protest' (Devlin and Tischler, 2004, p.79). Although he refers to blacks as 'Negro', it seemsthat his referenceto them never implies racial bias or discrimination. He mentions in his letter to his mother from Iowa City in 1937that he is 'taking part in a "living newspaper",a seriesof skits dramatising current events' where he plays 'a Negro chairman of a church convention condemningHugo Black and the Ku Klux Klan' (Devlin and Tischler, 2000, p.104: my emphasis). In his memoirs, Williams refers to the fact that his sister 'Rose is fond of blacks, as I am, perhaps becauseof our devotion to our beautiful black nurse Ozzie when we were children in Mississippi' who used to conclude her letters to Williams with 'love to my children, white or black' (MgmLirs p.252). Some critics like Nick Moschovakis in 'TennesseeWilliams' American Blues: From the Early Manuscripts Through Menagerie' (2005) thinks that racial issuesdo not 'often arise explicitly in the Williams canon' in comparisonto 'other major Southernwriters' (Moschovakis,2005, p. 1).

198
be in This ness'. will read relation to the stage as an exterior projection of the characters' interior conflict in order to create,through this 'one-ness', a spaceof

liberation.
The opening of the play suggests two spatial dimensions of the Mississippi Delta farmhouse: the ground level and an upper space. The ground floor consistsof four spatial areas:the back wall, a kitchen and 'a mysterious little Williams Plqys 1957parlour' with 'a narrow, dark hall betweenthem' Tennessee 1980,p.625). The two latter areasconstitutethe interior which 'will be exposed',as Williams puts it, in his description of the setting. It suggeststhat Williams is her journey Myrtle's towards recounting a metaphorical self-discovery of interiority. Her confinement is visualised from the very beginning by the spatial barriers that she has to overcome. The door representsthe first symbolic barrier: there is the back door which she 'pulls', tumbling off the back steps when it is by first for first her home However, 'new time the to opened. she refuses at enter the back door' and only finally 'stops waiting out front and comes charging back around the side of the house' to try 'the back door' (p.627). She first finds it stuck but then it opensto lead her 'straight up' to 'the dark, narrow hall' through which she heads straight to the parlour (p.629). The secondspatial barrier is the door to it. The the parlour. It is stuck but after putting her weight against it, she accesses last spatial barrier is the kitchen door, which she cannot access becauseit has been locked by Chicken. This suggestshis territorial dominance over the kitchen, by which he can manipulate others. The play establishesthe kitchen as his territory, where entry and exit are licensedby him. The 'back wall of the house' symbolises Myrtle's hidden interiority,

by a scrim' that will 'lift when the house is entered' which is 'represented

199 (Tennessee Williams Plgys 1957-1980 p.625). Williams usesmany vivid details to describeher entranceinto the house, paralleling the journey into her interiority. In this sense,it is not clear whether the other two charactersare there merely to serve the navigation of this journey, as elementsin Myrtle's interiority rather than real dramatic characters.In other words, Chicken and Lot represent two conflicting her interior binaries Myrtle's (her that sexuality and opposites visualise suppressed apparent decency). In the spatial construction of the play, the steps act as a transitional place betweenthesetwo opposites. Chicken and Lot provide this vision as a prolepsis of her descentinto her interiority. On the one hand, Chicken resides in the kitchen area which is identified with invisibility and marginality. It has been inhabited by the invisible outcasts:Chicken and the 'unmarried colored couples' who were there when Lot's its in Positioned the mother was still alive. spatially ground-floor area, statusas a subterraneaninteriority is maintained. With a 'nude girl's body in a calendar picture' a sexual aspect is added to the place (p.626). However, it remains the sourceof light and warmth in the house,as there is no 'fire anywherein this house except in the kitchen' (p.632). This is read as a stage through which Myrtle must in interiority. her to order achieve reconciliation move with

To achieveUs, she has to violate Chicken'sterritorial dominance

over the area. However, Myrtle fails to recognisethat Chicken is the only one who can defeatthe spatial entrapmentof the flood by going up to the roof As such,he is describedin the stagedirections with his 'rubber hip boots coveredwith river slick' as a 'suitable antagonist to a flooding river' (p.625: my emphasis). The word (antagonist' suggeststhe image of his 'boots' as a weapon of resistanceagainstthe flood. The only outlet for Myrtle is to reconcile herself with this body through the

200 circle of 'one-ness'. Given this fact, she is incapable of building an equal relationship with him, and he startsto violate her insteadof her controlling him. He begins to project onto her his own anxiety resulting from his bodily confinement. Chicken is confined within his 'black-complexion' and 'coloured blood', which appears to causehis bodily anxiety. He is subjectedto the racial gaze of disgust and discrimination. For example, the play starts with a bleak attitude of white society towards Chicken: the white people who flee the flood inform him 4sorrywe don't have room for you in the car' (p.625). He also tells Myrtle in one of his monologuesthat they won't sell him 'bottle liquor in this country', but that he gets it from an 'ole colored man that brews a pretty good brew' (p.665). Furthermore, when he approachesone of the white girls on the 'Dixie Star', she gives him a 'quick, mean look' and says,"Nigger, stay in your place"' (P.679: my emphasis).He is labelled 'colored' and 'Nigger' as terms which entrap him within others' perceptionsof his skin colour. This entrapmentis visualised spatially by his being positioned on the ground floor. He never ascendsto the upper area of the stage,only moving horizontally on the lower spatial areasof the house:the kitchen, the lower hall, the back door, and the basement. By contrast, the upstairs area symbolises the white and supposedly genteel Southern world, guarded by Lot. Ironically, it is a dark area where 'the electric current that makes the lights light ... is temporarily interrupted' (p.629). The crystal chandelier cannot light the place as its pendants are dusty. The only light that enters is an exterior 'fading grey light' through the velvet drapes. Everything on this level is fragile, including the crystal chandelier, the bohemian wineglassesand the gold chairs. This evokes a situation of decay and death in life, through Lot's body. Lot is diseasedwith TB and he is only which is also expressed

201 barely able to staggeraround the space.Sitting in the bedroom,Lot is positioned in the 'pool of the moonlight' where his only spatial movement is that of the 'Wicker his due interior instability for his (p. 65 to 1). The rocking motion stands rocker' his brought his through of past. memories about mental confinement It is important to the direction of Williams' drama after Iguan that this is presentedsymbolically through Lot's mind, more so than as a visual symbol identifies lost, Southern Lot setting. with certain visual symbols, physical of a including his mother's cigar holder, her clothes, and the house. Through these he builds memories as a point of departureinto the past. For example,upon his early in he holder 'from Chicken the a coat pocket, puts a cigarette removes meeting with it and lights it' (p.632). By remaining in the house, he maintains the illusion of a image her he So, by Myrtle, the to tries to of revive use marrying continuous past. his deadmother, as part of his 'revengeplot' againstChicken to regain the house. This situates Lot and Chicken in a rivalry for Myrtle. This is him by Lot to the Chicken's towards which push advances spatially visualised by bedroom. beginning Lot's At to the the of the play, when and retreat upper area, he realisesthat Lot has arrived at the house, Chicken rushesto the kitchen to hide: his 'frozen attitude by the door was releasedby the sound of Lot's paroxysm of long long, 634). jug (p. He 'crosses takes to takes and a a cupboard, out a coughing' drink' (p.634). Neither Lot nor Myrtle calls him out of the kitchen; he only comes TB; decline he Lot's 'is In through comparison see ready'. we physical out when by the end of SceneOne he groansand staggersto his feet after being pushedto the floor by Chicken. So, he 'drags himself up the steep,dark, narrow steps' in retreat to the bedroom (p.650). Following Lot, at the end of this scene Myrtle also bedroom door'. In this upper area sherealises 4 the to the up narrow steps scrambles

202 that she is entrappedspatially, unable to 'drive right back to Memphis', stuck with a sick husband. Lot's lack of reaction puts Myrtle in tension with herself. This is visualised by her vertical movement on the stairs throughout the play, which is symbolic of her hovering between her suppressedsexuality and her illusory decency. On the one hand, when going upstairs to the bedroom, she denies her sexuality in order to display a refined personality in front of Lot. She tells him a different version of what is happening down in the kitchen between her and Chicken, to keep up her image as a 'decent woman'. For example, she lies about her comment on the carving on the table: 'I notice a pocket knife and some fresh wood shavingsin the middle of the table. Well. That was peculiar but I said nothing about it' (p.662). Gradually Chicken attempts to help her confront her sexual interiority. From the very beginning he tries to reveal her past: 'yes I bet. You kick with the right leg, you kick with the left leg, and betweenyour legs you make your living' (p.645). Savransupportsthis line of argument, as he views Chicken as 'the embodiment of power and virility' who 'disrupts a woman's life and her

affiliations, inauguratesa sexual encounter tinged with violence, and effects her transfiguration' (Savran, p. 122). It is his virility that will, according to Savran, 'rejuvenate the force that can suddenly and almost magically awaken sexual desire and transform a woman ... from a state of real or feigned innocenceto a wary yet vigorous adulthood' (p. 122). It is not only Chicken's 'virility'

that highlights Myrtle's sexual

interiority, according to my reading, as he uses four exterior visual items to do the same:the lamp light; the switch-blade knife; the carvings; and the kitchen table. In SceneTwo, the 'upstairs bedroom is lighted by an oil lamp' with Chicken visible

203 throughout the scenein 'the very dim-lit kitchen'. Before calling Myrtle, he 'turns up the lamp in the kitchen' (TennesseeWilliams PlUs 1957-19LO,p.651). The lamp symbolisesthe force of light through which he wants to awakenher sexuality. He pushesthe lamp 'toward her', as the lack of light will 'strain her eyesight' and prevent her from recognisingthe sexual carving and inscription on the kitchen table (p.659). Finding the carvings 'insulting to a clean-living woman who is not interested or attracted to - indecent things in her life', Myrtle maintains the suppressionof her sexuality (p.660). So, she escapes spatially by her ascentto the upstairsbedroom away from the lamp light. The double-bladedknife symbolisestwo aspects:pleasureand death. With the first blade, Chicken amuseshimself by carving an 'indecent picture' and 'indecent word' into a kitchen table. The other blade implies death from which Myrtle escapes, reminding her of the end of the 'mobile hot shot' who was stabbed by a knife.59 Thus, the image of Chicken folding the 'switch-blade knife' and putting it 'in his pocket', visualiseshim as a force that can control this destructive aspectof sexuality. The kitchen table is the most significant amongthesevisual items as it the place where the 'one-ness' betweenChicken and Myrtle is created.It represents is a 'small square kitchen table' around which Chicken controls Myrtle's movements,either by giving up his chair or pushing the table towards her (p.692). First he managesto changeher 'standing up' to a sitting position. He gets her an 'old auto cushion' which he puts on the chair to make her a 'nice soft seat' as he knows that 'woman don't like a hard seat' (p.676). By sitting 'on the edge of the
59Myrtle is like Blanche in Streetcar who fears the two opposites of death and desire. However, unlike Blanche who is entrappedwithin these two opposites, Myrtle through Chicken breaks free from the entrapmentof thesetwo opposites.

204 auto cus ion', Myrtle at this point is still on the margin of this area. When she comes to understandthe arrangementbetween Chicken and Lot, that the former runs the farm owned by the latter, she resumesthe standing position; she rises stiffly with her breathing 'audible and rapid' before leaning for support againstthe table (p.681). However, not until SceneSix does she move from 'standing up' to being seatedon the chair, the position that best symbolisesher spatial involvement within this 'one-ness'. Chicken asks her 'do you write standing upT, so she sits down to write the letter by which she declaresthat 'the place and all on it will be Chicken's, all Chicken's, when Lot Ravenstockdies' (p.691). The portrayal of Myrtle's hand betweenChicken's after she signs over her first visual bodily involvement within this 'one-ness' with the paper represents him. Holding her shaky hands,he wants her to feel his bodily marks: the 'calluses' which he gets from the hard work on the farm (p.690). He makes further bodily her, from 'sitting in chairs on opposite sidesof the small, square towards advances kitchen table, chairs angled toward the audience', he 'rises and moves close to her' (p.692). Adopting this position close to her body, he asks: 'can you kiss and like kissin' a man that's beenaccusedof having someblack blood in himT (p.692).

Myrtle's movement her hesitance: dramatises 'she after this statement risesfrom her chairandpulls it backfrom thetable', because shestill hasa 'typical dreadand awe of Negros' (p.695). Shetries to maintaina Southernlower-class between her fear that he should them,justifying it by expressing spatialdistance his swing 'bootswith mudon 'em.stainin'my blouse',but herblouse'was awready (p. 695). Herethe 'stain' stands stained' as a visual symbolof Chicken'sviolation of her body.He asksher to moveher chair 'back to whereit was' in orderthat she be to his orderby movingthe chair should within his dominance again.Shesubmits

205
to where he points. Thus, the sceneends with Myrtle sitting on the chair 'so close to the table that she is between his boots' (p.693). Through their sexual contact at the end of the scene,they achievebodily unity. Kolin arguesthat by the end of the play, Myrtle 'has had an epiphany thanks to Chicken, who subsequentlybecomesher savoir'. He brings a real light of salvation to her life; thus, 'the darknessbetweenthe scenesis replacedwith light', and this emphasises'the script's messageabout a new relationship being born' (Crandell, 1996a, p.240). My reading of the play supports this suggestion of a reinventedrelationship, which is integratedwith the rebirth of Myrtle's body within her 'one-ness' with Chicken. Therefore, the first words of Chicken after the sexual act are: 'let there be light' (TennesseeWilliams PlUs 1957-1980, p.693). He echoesGod's own words in order to announceMyrtle's metaphoricalrebirth within this 'one-ness'. Hence, their 'one-ness' is given a theological rituality achieved through sex. He thinks that 'there's nothing in the world, in this whole kingdom of earth that can comparewith one thing and that one thing is what's able to happen between a man and a woman' (p.701). Having a woman who is sufficiently physically attracted to him to say 'Daddy I want it' enableshim to get a 'square deal out of life' (p.701). Despite the sexual connotations, the use of the word 'Daddy' maintains and emphasisesChicken's God-like characteristics. Here he becomesMyrtle's force of light, which she cannot stand to be left without. When he departsshe shouts 'don't leave me alone here' (p.679). Her words imply a clear reference to Chicken as a God-like force within their 'one-ness', although from Chicken's perspectivehe is so obsessed with

the evil in himself that he can only conceiveof a God of wrath andnot a God of
love. Thomas P. Adler in 'The Searchfor God in the Plays of Tennessee Williams'

206 (1973) views Chicken as one of the three characters with who 'become so obsessed the evil in themselvesand in those around them' that they relate this evil to God. Like Shannon in Nuan and Sebastianin Last Summer, Chicken denies himself 'the possibility of redemption' because of his own distorted image of God (Stanton, in Religious 141). Quoting J. Posture: John Fritscher 'Some Attitudes a p. and Metaphor and Ritual in Tennessee Williams' Query of God' (1970), Adler connects this 'God of Wrath' to the psychic wounds left by Williams' 'experience of wrath and love'; according to this argument 'sin in Williams is not so much an offence keeps between but God, against some people which an establishmentof alienation them from meaning God to each other', which in this case prevents 'person-topersongoodness'(p. 138). Chicken developsthis exploration of 'person-to-persongoodness'into what I call 'person-to-personsalvation', by offering Myrtle survival by taking her is from flood. in her As the this to the the the to a up roof at end of play order save 'kingdom of earth' rather than a 'kingdom of heaven', Myrtle gains bodily rather her her helps However, this term sexual salvation. of reconcile spiritual survival interiority, and the roof representsthe spatial area of liberation. Although it is not know is dialogue, happening there through the we about what which staged maintains the statusof salvation as unseenand mysterious. It seemsthat Williams' liberation in is it is He this through that vision of play an abstract one. suggests 'one-ness' that the characters can transcend their isolated selves in order to be liberated from confinement. While Myrtle and Chicken survive at the end of the play, content with the more immanent 'kingdom of earth', Lot chasesafter the decaying 'kingdom of heaven', trying to transcendthe faded Southernpast of his beyond the stage. mother into the heavenly spaces

207 This is dramatisedby Lot descendingthe stairs for the first time at the Williams end of the play, with the 'crown' suggestinga king-like image (Tennessee PlUs 1957-1980, p.702). His staggering movements visualise his kingdom's gradual decay. Michael R. Schiavi in 'Effeminacy in the Kingdom: Tennessee Williams and Stunted Spectatorship' (1999) reads this decay in relation to Lot's for breath'; transvestismand effeminacy, and views Lot 'as anti-body gasping ... he is portrayed as conducting a 'one-man war with physicality': costumed in his 'mother's white silk wrapper, he is rendered an unearthly sorcerer wielding a fuming magic wand that defines substanceby transforming it to air' (Schiavi, p. 108). On losing 'his bodily battle' he collapsesin the parlour, bowing as if he was acting to an 'applauding audience' (p. 108). In my reading his audience can be interpreted as his own self, which he cannot transcenduntil his body confines him in death. This is visualised by his collapse in the parlour, the place which symboliseshis refined Southernpast. Chicken entersthe parlour to 'sit gingerly on for Williams Plgys 1957-1980,p.702). the of one gilt chairs a moment' (Tennessee This symboliseshis violation of Lot's kingdom of heaven.The act of sitting on the chairs maintains the triumph of his earthy, sexualand animal-like kingdom of earth. The spatial movement of Myrtle is described in her retreat to the kitchen where she moves towards the utensils (p.702). She headsto the wall where the 'knife' and 'pan' are hanging. This symbolises her transformation from 'the easy life queen' who brought electronic machineswith her at the beginning of the play, into a 'hard' woman who appearscarrying knives and sharputensils. She has to change into a hard woman to survive in Chicken's kingdom where 'a man and his life both got to be equally hard. Made out of the samehard thing' (p.683). In contrast, the fragile Lot dies in a feminized 'gauzy white dress' adopting a

208 'kneeling position' which contrasts with Chicken standing over Lot's 'summer gauzeapparition' pronouncing 'Chicken is king' (pp.702-04). Chicken's final words to Myrtle, 'up, quick', implies that he is the only one who can elevateher up spatially and spiritually. He is her saviour from the flood water that is approaching with its 'great booming sound' (p.705). Standing behind him unable to be left alone, she is trapped but also liberated within their 'one-ness', outside of which she feels vulnerable. Within this 'one-ness' she can belong to the spatial kingdom of earth, while she does not have the power to confront the exterior threat of the flood alone. Thus, Myrtle prefers to stay within this area of 'one-ness', which is further developedin Williams' plays of the 1970s into a wider circle of collective unity. This marks a movementin Williams' concept of marginality in his later plays, from an individual experienceto a collective one, as the following part of this chapterwill demonstrate.

209 CHAPTER 111, PART III

IN THE BAR OF A TOKYO HOTEL (1969)

In his later plays of the 1970s and 1980s, using free dramatic forms, Tennessee Williams moved towards adopting the absurdistconceptof silencein relation to the he is However, of marginality. rarely viewed as an absurdist writer, experience in his late drama silence operatesin a different way from in the work of the because in in is drama by Karen F. Stein, Silence absurdist absurdists. viewed 'Metaphysical Silence in Absurd Drama' (1979), as a symbol of emptiness but 'rich' in 'ambiguous interpretation' (Stein, p.423). This is related to the absurdist theme of silence 'when the Romantic impulse to make literature transcend itself and reach the absolute [leads] to a frustration with language itself' (p.423). The from is lay bare' 'existence the to and stems silence an attempt absurdist use of belief 'that existenceitself is chaotic' (p.423). In this sense,silencefor the absurdist lack of dramatist 'is no longer an indication of mystical possibilities but of absence, meaning, the void', symbolically 'linked with the existential mystery' (p.425). Williams in his later plays departs from this view, to use silence as a from liberating the marginality, outlet characters' and paradoxically as a symbol of the confinement of language.Williams' later charactersresort to silenceto achieve liberation from their interior bodily confinement and entrapmentwithin language. Thus, by using incomplete and broken sentences confined charactersproject their anxiety onto other characters,who find themselves obliged to comprehend and complete their sentences.In doing so, these charactersare implicated within the

is former. be This the confinement of confinement can viewed as a circle which

210 fully visualised in Williams' In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotd-0969). Within this circle,
two confined charactersare merged, simultaneouslybuilding up a new exterior and

interior space;exterior because be it transcends to the character's confinedself it combines the interiorities projectedonto anothercharacter, and interior because of the two characters.
Unlike Williams' early plays, the stage (the exterior space) is used here as an exterior projection of the characters'interior conflict, in order to createa larger space of liberation which in the previous part of this chapter I called the 'one-ness'. However, after establishing this 'one-ness' the charactersfail to come to grips with each other within it. Thus, the spaceof liberation paradoxically also suggestsconfinement. It standsfor a spaceof freedom as a refuge from the hostile exterior spacebut, at the same time, it gradually becomesan unbearableplace of confinement due to lack of communication between the two characters. This liminal spaceis where the experienceof marginality lies in Williams' later plays. For example, the previous part of this chapter endedwith discussionof Chicken in Kingdom of Earth (1968) creating his 'one-ness' with Myrtle as an outlet for his bodily confinement. However, by projecting his confinement onto Myrtle, both start to share within this 'one-ness' an experienceof confinement. This senseof confinement originates from the two characters'unequal roles within it. Chicken's words 'Let there be light' position him as Myrtle's new God, in his echo of God's words at the moment of creation. As a light- and life-force, Chicken plays a superior role to Myrtle within their 'one-ness'. However, here an earthly light is

offered by Chicken,which replacesthe heavenlylight of faith which Shannon in discovers Iguan (1961). eventually

211 Williams' late characterscontinue to searchfor the earthly light, as presentedin Earth, to replacethe heavenly light of faith which they cannot achieve, this religious light did not seemreal within the context of the rising mainly because social movements which came to dominate America in the late 1960s and early 1970s.While Williams never subscribedto any one social movement at that time,

his work reflected the desirewithin Americato find new spaces of liberation.I will
argue that these spacesof liberation are portrayed in complex ways in Williams'

laterwork.
The main aim of the following part of this chapter is to explore the development of the marginality concept in relation to the concept of 'one-ness', through the later phaseof Williams' dramatic career, spanningthe late 1960suntil the end of the 1970s.I will focus on the plays in which this conceptis most evident: In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and Small Craft Wamings (1972) which offer the best examplesof the transition of Williams' dramatic technique. The conclusion of the thesis will chart the attempt in the final phase of his career to move beyond language,with particular referenceto Vieux Carr6 (1977).

The idea of 'one-ness'in relationto light will not be considered as

Williams' movement beyond the concept of God, but rather as a re-establishingof

He can be seento developthe theologicalcontentof his plays,here this concept. God is changed from a higher power who exists on a transcendent place,to one inhabitingthe earthcloserto the characters. This development parallelsthe spatial Williams movesfrom using a transcendent set-ups of his-later plays.For example,
setting embodiedby the three-storeyhousein Earth and the hilltop hotel of Iguan , into the more enclosed Tokyo setting of In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel. Here the charactersmove horizontally, unlike previous plays where charactersmainly move

212 up and down. Through this technique Williams transformsreligion from an abstract ideal into a tangible bodily experiencewithin the circle of 'one-ness'. This circle is developed further in the plays of the 1970s, as a movement from an individual experienceto a collective one, where a group of characterswork together to reach their goals and to prevent their solitary alienation. So the circle of 'one-ness' is recreated and widened to include two or more characters,in order to operate on a collective level. In other words, a group of people work together to prevent an individual's confinement. Here the identifiable self-confined minorities of Williams' early plays are replaced with a community which parallels the 'beloved community' popularised by Martin Luther King in his civil rights vision of the 1960s, and which for Williams, was an antidote to the growing cynicism in American life in the 1970s.

As the emphasisof this chapter is to explore Williams' development of the circle of 'one-ness' in relation to the experienceof marginality, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel is a good play to consider first as it chartshis departurefrom realism towards freer forms of expression.Tokyo Hotel witnesses a movement from the long poetic speeches and monologues of Iguan to shorter and incomplete

This movement is not manifestedonly through languagebut also by the sentences. setting of the play. There are many referencesto the action on the stageas symbolic from Apart than the two main characters,the only concrete and realistic. rather introduced to are the unnamed and indefinite 'Barman' and we are others 'Hawaiian Lady', who are there to serve the interaction of the main characters rather than being realised dramatic charactersthemselves.Moreover, the play takes

place in an indefinite Tokyo scene,where the dramatic action is static. This the spatial setting as a visualisationof the interiority of the two emphasises

213
but by Miriam Mark. They Japan Miriam, to travel trip characters, and on a planned

for Mark andleadsto his nervous thej ourneyhasominousconsequences collapse. As an artist Mark is in dangerof isolatinghimself in his art, which in turn creates
tension with Miriam. The action of the play startsin the midst of this tension, with Miriam contacting Leonard, Mark's agent, to convince him to come to Tokyo to take her husbandback to New York.

Although written only one year after Earth, Tokyo Hotel develops some of the themes of marginality of the previous play. However, the way these themesare presentedis adjustedto cope with the free dramatic forms adopted.So, Tokyo Hotel moves further from presenting the concept of 'one-ness' as a fluctuating mental spaceestablishedbetweentwo individuals, as between Chicken and Myrtle in Earth, and presentsit as a visual and physical spaceon the stage. Reference is actually made in Tokyo Hotel to 'the circle of light', and a round

'centre table' is described,around which the characters move. Dialogue and

language, in itself becomes a vicious cycle as the characters remain at best stagnant. So they resort to projecting their anxiety onto each other, and have no

circle of anxietyandentrapment. choicebut to go on within this endless

Here in To!QoHotel we are not introduced to the stages of how Miriam and Mark's circle of 'one-ness' is created,as we are in Earth. Rather, the play explores what happenswithin this circle and how the 'one-ness' develops into an experience of marginality. The emphasis of this part will be on reading this experienceof marginality in relation to the anxiety of the two charactersin order to

how this circle becomes This part of the chapter examine a space of confinement.
links this concept of 'one-ness' to the marginality of languagewhich characterises Williams' plays of the 1970s.

214 Tokyo Hotel starts with a detailed description of the main setting of the play, the barroom in an unnamed Tokyo hotel. Miriam is located in 'a small area of intenselight' and seatedat a 'small round table' (The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 7, p.3). The circularity of the table suggestsa visual image of

is lit by her husband, This Mark. Miriam beinglocated table an within a circle with 'intense light' from abovewhich maintainsthe circle of lighOOMiriam's first of 'vitality' in Tokyo which words verbaliseher feeling towardsthe atmosphere her expressed appreciation of the 'rate of suicide' (p.3). Whenasked accompanies by the Barmanwhy thereare no suicides,sherepliesthat in Americathereis 'an implies is (p. 3). Her that answer world-wide' explosion of vitality which implicitly 'vitality' This Americans their the refersto areexporting all over world. ideas its in the early 1970s influential the United States asa rising powerspreading the globe. andvaluesacross
Thus, Miriam adopts in her relation to the Barman a chauvinistic American attitude. She assertsthat the idioms which he usesare the 'idioms of my by (p. 6: With 'native' the a preceded word my emphasis). native country' in is is This sense apparent possessivepronoun, a senseof nationalism connoted. her attempt to differentiate between the idioms the Barman uses and the idioms is Americans For 'venerable' 'real' the still a native use. example, word which hasn't heard longer has (p. 6). but Miriam the word thinks that currency she no word for a long time, implying that although it is a native word, what it stands for no longer exists. This implicitly connotesthe superiority of the Americans over other in Japan, Williams explores the growth of Setting the play national cultures. American influence on Japan. Yet, as Leonard puts it, 'the Japanese make such
60As discussedin the previous chapter, the circle of 'one-ness' brings the light of salvation to the characters.

215 lovely, compact electric appliances,such as their Sony transistors' (p.44). Williams is interested in its 'exotic' culture in a similar way as he was in the Mexico of Iguan This helps him to dramatisethe experienceof his characters'marginality . by alienating them from their exterior society. Again, the focus is on reading this experienceon a psychological level and not on explicitly socio-political one. The concept of 'one-ness' is central to the following argument and be defined within the context of the play. Miriam's 'one-ness' with Mark to needs implies her 'infantile dependence'on him (p. 14). Hence, she is stuck within the light and cannot move or go anywhere (that is why she always sits at the circle of table). Miriam and Mark are visualised as two fragments of one entity. For in holds her large himself Miriam him look the to example, when miffor at make

her he it he looks 'stares her'; her himself to through glass, above at at as see
(p. 18). This 'one-ness' is also conveyed verbally in their conversation. They complete each other's sentences, which is very different from Miriam's conversation with the Barman where the meaning of their sentencesis implicit within their conversation. Mark tells Miriam that 'I've always felt that. After the work, so little is left of me. To give to another person'; to the word 'another person', Miriam simply replies: 'Mark'; then he responds: 'Miriam' (p.28). This

canbe readto imply that the 'anotherperson'is both Mark andMiriam at the same
time. This is put explicitly within Miriam's question: 'are we two people, Mark, or are we -', she stops here as Mark asks her to do so, then lifting 'her hands to her face' the words continue as she completes the sentencesaying: 'two sides of One' (p.30: my emphasis).However, the word 'one' implies equality which Mark tries to escapeor deny, by exerting power over Miriam in his role of controller of the circle. When she asks him this question, he physically tries to prove his

216 superiority over her by asking her to stop and calling her a 'bitch', while she goes on telling him that they are 'two sides' of one: 'an artist inhabiting the body of a compulsive -' (p.30). Her sentenceimplies that within this circle of 'one-ness', Mark functions as the spirit which inhabits her body. As a body, Miriam projects her anxiety through sex, while as a spirit Mark projects his anxiety through art. However, when Miriam insists on continuing to talk about this 'one-ness',he flings her physically through the arch: in other words, he physically pushesher out of the he her her he light 'seizes knees' 'lifts 'staggers to shoulders' as of as and she circle her and flings her through the arch, out of the bar' (p.30). Mark's physical act of 6seizing', 'lifting' throughout Part 1. and 'flinging' Miriam is the only physical action he uses

Asked by the Barman, Mark tells him that 'I think that I will stay here till my wife returns from' (p.31). The sentenceis again left incomplete and Mark for in implying he the table, that wait a chair at will adoptsa static seatingposition half. her his 'other Miriam until she is back. This visualises his dependence as on The physical action of flinging Miriam off the stageindicates the stageas a spatial is described light. Hence the the stage circle of anyone who appearson areawithin as entering this circle not the stage. For example, when Leonard comes on the stage,he 'enters the circle of light' (p.34). This implies that the circle of light is the setting of the play and the arch standsfor a visual boundary between this spatial areaand the outside world, off stage. From the very beginning of the play, Miriam is introduced as a sexually frustrated woman who flirts with the Barman and makes several sexual

him. bamboo'which represents He is located'behinda bar of polished to advances (p.3). The polished bamboostands a visual exteriorimageof his interior space asa

217 spatial boundary between him and Miriam's circle of 'one-ness'. Thus, Miriam's movements towards him can be read as an attempted violation of this space motivated by her sexual drive. Miriam is read by Henry Hewes' review of the play

in 'Tennessee's Quest' (1996) as a 'boldly lecherous operator,obsessed with the

physical attractiveness of younger men' where 'she sees her pursuit of her compulsion as a necessaryaffirmation of her vitality' (Crandell, 1996a, p.246). Hewes' argument is based on the stereotypical reading of Williams' earlier females' sexuality, while Miriam's sexuality links back to her anxiety with regards

to Mark.
Miriam's anxiety can be understood in the light of her relationship look. 'I I absorb. I go on' (The Tbeatre of Tennessee the with exterior space:

Williams, Volume7, p.9). Thethreeactionsarepassive ratherthanactive;shetries

to absorbthe exterior space.The act of absorbingimplies her attempt to interiorise the exterior space.She doesnot establishany belonging to the exterior space,as the implies. is in 'go This on' contrast to Mark, who Miriam thinks would take phrase 'an hour to absorb a pagoda' (p.9). Mark needsa long time to absorba place as he tries to dominate the exterior spacearound him, while Miriam acceptsand absorbs

her survivalwithin the circle of light. Sherealises it. Hence,this maintains that she
is not capableof defeating the circle of light as she is wholly entrappedwithin its circularity; as she puts it: 'I'm fully aware, of course,that there's no magical trick to defend me indefinitely from the hideous product of calendars,clocks, watches. However I've made a covenantwith them' (p. 13). This agreement(expressedin the religious terms of a 'covenant') is summed up as 'one pill' which is enough to take out her life (! he Theatre of Williams, Volume 7, p. 13). Miriam alludes to the fact that she comesto Tennessee

218 illness', in 'incurable taking this that a case of an agreementwith circularity, and the one suicidal pill will be the solution (p. 13). The anxiety that results from the feeling of being confined within the circularity, she projects onto 'concave' or flower Barman's the the the on the table, crotch, cablegram, vertical shapes, namely flower, between herself dwells She the the the as she similarity and on and pagodas. feels they are both 'stuck' within the circle of light. Thus, by asking the Barman to remove it, she tries to free herself from her feeling of being confined. Meanwhile, his in front bar, Barman to the to the trying violate come of she repeatedly asks behind barrier. bar, his Through by this powerthe spatial crossing space from feels the confinement which she within the circle of she escapes relationship light. Here in the play, the Barman is presentedas a symbol of the exterior space: he is positioned on the stage as a male object of her gaze, onto whom Miriam back her frustration Mark's her to sexual over which relates anxiety, projects impotency.

There are many hints in the play that indicate the Barman as an object for this anxiety and not as a dramatic character.When asked about his name, he letter definite (p. 4). Using Barman' 'I to refer to the a article a capital and says am himself and his profession as one thing, he is presentedas an abstraction.Hence, at the very beginning of Part 1, Miriam refers to his occupation as a confinement: 'why don't you look for an occupation that's not so confining' (p.4). By using the word 'confining', Miriam projects her own experienceof confinement within the ficircle of light' on him. The visual action of removing a large miffor from her bag symbolises the attempt to externalise her interior confinement within the circle. She tells the Barman that she likes to see 'what is going on' about her (p.4). However, the miffor

219 for light', for is inside here 'circle to the of stands a visual means reflect what going those positioned outside this circle. The Barman is positioned spatially outside this 'circle of light' because,unlike other characters,he is able to move freely out of this circle, on and off the stage. Miriam tries to project the light from the miffor by carrying a tray of drinks off stage.He avoids onto the Barman, but he escapes facing the projected light: 'the light from the mirror is in my eyes', and he refers to it as burning through his clothes, implying that the light is destructiveto those who are positioned outsidethe 'circle of light' (p.5). The free dramatic forms which are used in the play also maintain the image of the Barman as an object of anxiety. His dialogue with Miriam includes it incomplete him 'are When Miriam sure you sentences. asks many ellipses and isn't my observation of youT he replies 'I am'; then she tells him 'you are. So I cast doubt over the statusof the Barman as a am' (p.5). The incomplete sentences in her fact, In Miriam's the 'circle of things acts of observing around real entity. light' cast doubts over whether they are a reflection or a reality. The only action the Barman has on stage is with the drinks shaker, which Miriam sees as 'very distracting' as it is put in opposition to her physical confinement within the 'circle her does (or 4-5). She light' (pp. this only not cannot) circle; move around within of her bracelet feathers her head', her 'the touching of on rearranging are movements from her head (p. 7). The 'ornamented the suspended glass pendantsand moving door leading offstage' signify a visual parallel to her movementwithin the arch of a is blows (p. This 'chatter 7). they the through' used musically when wind circle, and as a 'way of underlining or punctuating. Each time the pendantssound, Miriam

the the feathers thenrearranges touches on her hat andmakesher hummingsound, bracelets on her armsandmovesher headfrom sideto sidemorenoticeably'(p.7:

220 my emphasis).This 'way of underlining or punctuating' is related to the parallel between the sound of these pendantsand Miriam's movements,where she checks her confined statuswithin the 'circle of light' every now and then: by moving her

head from side to side and rising and crossing toward the bar. Her spatial
restlessness visualises her failure to violate the exterior space.She has no control over the exterior subjectsaround her, so the Barman doesnot cross beyond the bar flower is the returned to the table. There are always 'instructions' that control and these subjects, and keep them fixed in their space. This maintains Miriam's frustration and confinement within the exterior space which reflects her confinement within the 'circle of light'.

Miriam describes In her monologue, the two destinies which shefears:

death and ageing as the two unpredictable and inevitable fates. Like death, ageing happen overnight: can some women grow suddenly old. They go to bed young, well, reasonablyyoung women and when they wake up in the morning and go to the mirror, they face- what? -a specter! Yes they face a specter!

Themselves,yes, but not young (p.36). Meanwhile, she fears death which servesto 'remove, wrench, tearV (p.37). With talk of ageing Miriam refers to herself, while with death sherefers to Mark. Miriam implies that death will break up the 'circle of light' and the 'one-ness' betweenher feels longer is She Mark. that the the this she stays closer she to and within circle this fate. This causesher feeling of being confined within this circle, yet she adopts

a conflicting attitudetowardsit. In otherwords,shewantsto flee from him, at the time sheis afraidof deaththatwill depriveher of him. So sheis left alone'in same

221 solitude' where the only way out of it is through the 'mortal pillbox' she holds in death by the possibility of becoming an agent of death, reserve(p.37). She escapes the very thing which parallels her relation to the 'circle of light'. In other words, she resorts to the logic of the 'circle of light' to avoid the loneliness which she

with 'terror'. After she utters the word 'terror' she 'wrenchesher associates brilliant bracelets up and down on her arms'; the braceletis here a symbolof the
'circle of light' (p.37). She wants to fly away to become 'free', but also thinks that 'space betweentwo people is sometimes' (p.43). Leaving the sentenceincomplete, Miriam here refers to Mark and herself as 'two people' whereasearlier they were describedas one. Her changing attitude towards the circle of 'one-ness' reflects her own conflicting statusof being free and confined at the sametime. She wants to free herself from Mark by creating a space between them. This spaceis not approvedby Mark, who cannot get back his breath when he hearsher talking about space.He realisesthat Miriam has an ambivalent attitude to the circle; her begrudging dependenceon him and her 'fear' of losing him may push her to commit suicide by taking out her 'little Regency snuffbox' (p.44). This attitude is causedby her realisation that Mark's relationship with his art pusheshim away from the 'circle of light': he is not 'living for' her, but rather for his art (p.45).

Mark dismisses the circle of 'one-ness' with Miriam to build another

with his art. He seeksto build it through a physical contact with his canvas: I've understoodthe intimacy that should, that has to exist between,the, the- painter, and the- 1! It! Not it turned to me, or I turned to it, no division betweenus at all any more! The 'one-ness', the! (p. 17).

222 This physical contact is implied within the word 'intimacy', which Mark tries to createout of his art. Throughout the play, his canvaspaintings are personified. For instance,he talks to them as if he is 'talking to anotherpersonin the studio' (p.28). So, in order to control (and build this intimacy with) his work, he has to be excludedphysically by staying all the time in his studio, as 'the work of a painter is lonely', and pushesMiriam away from him (p.28). She cannot take the loneliness which has become'a worn-out thing to discuss' (p.28). However, Mark fails to achievehis conceptof 'one-ness' with art. It is a territory which he tries to enter, even though he has no 'permission' to do so (p. 19). On entering he feels terrified and unstable, causing him mental instability and verbal incoherence.An elaboration of why his art may be viewed as a territory is significant here. Art representsa combination of Mark's fluctuating mental space and the exterior uncontrollable space.His fluctuating mental spaceis formulated by the 'images' which 'flash' in his brain: he has to 'get them on nailed-down canvas at once' (the canvashere standsfor uncontrollable exterior space)(p. 17). Thus, he crawls naked on the canvasin order to achieve bodily 'one-ness' with his art. His bodily nakednessaims to establish 'intimacy' with his art. Despite his increasing

inability to speak he still feelsthat his work is hardto 'confine' within coherently,
its 'controllable limits' (p. 18). Using 'spray guns' on these canvasesimplies a battle that is going on betweenMark and the canvaswhere the overriding question is who is violating whom (p.14). Mark's experienceswith these canvasesblend feelings of 'tension', 'excitement' and 'terror': 'I'm terrified of the new canvasses'he exclaims (p.21). He views himself laying his life 'on the line' and he feels 'terrified of the new canvasses',pushed to the edge of sanity due to his inability to control the new

223 territory with which he attempts to merge (p.21). By crossing into this territory of he devise but he 'stronger' him, to than which a new style which may seem art aims in his learn fact he is Given to to the that terrified control. go so will eventually is incapable he They of building an equal relationship with these canvasses. room, begins him instead his The to them. to of controlling actually painting start violate hands hair, for his suit, stands a visual symbolic violation of the art and which stain describe Using 'country' 'frontier' the the artwork to the and artist. words over in it Mark a spatial engages as an unconquerable area with which visualises

is not territorial fight (p.19).The bedroom areawhereMark workson the canvasses

is dialogue. This maintains the there the through the action reported only stagedand statusof his art as an unseenand mysteriousarea. The territorial fight ends with Mark being punished for his attempt to by is frontier This territory. the this of prohibited punishment visualised cross over his mental instability and his physical appearance on the stage.He appearson the stage with cuts on his face and spots of blood as symbols of this punishment. Miriam realises this when she tells Leonard: 'he's arrived at a departure that's a

his doubts he describes departure', ftom (p. 41). She which she will ever return real
fling, 'drip, that as of sopped,stained, saturated,scraped,ripped, style of art new 61 he (p. 4 1). These tries the through adjectives connote which violence skein of cut, to control his art.

61This is reminiscent of the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock (and Abstract Expressionistsmore generally). In an interview prior to Tokyo Hotel Williams claimed that when he wrote the play, he was writing about artist JacksonPollock who was like Mark in the play 'crawling naked in the floor with a spray gun, just spraying canvas and just streaking it over the canvas with his fingers' (Williams in Albert Devlin's Conversationswith Tennessee Williams (1986), p.294, in Kolin, 2002, p.89). Pollock is known for transforming his canvas into 'a modem-day arena' of an epic struggle betweenman and material (Kolin, 2002, p.99).

224 This punishment can be read as the consequence of trying to achieve 'one-ness' with the divine (where art stands in for God). Through his art, Mark starts to discover new spaceswhich 'drift skyward to some clearer spaceand then to another spaceeven higher and clearer' (p.49: my emphasis).Unlike Chicken in Earth, Mark chasesafter the kingdom of heaven by trying to transcend earthly spacethrough his art and move into the heavenly spacesbeyond the stage. This pusheshim away from the 'circle of light' with Miriam, who herself is content with the more immanent kingdom of earth. This is connoted within his use of the word 'drift', implying that through art Mark will have the ability to drift skyward: Mark

'burst out of the star-charnber, my studio,bare-assed as whenI first addedmy cry

(p. Using 49). to the' the word 'bare-assed', Mark implies a process of of protest rebirth achievedthrough his art. He compareshis experiencewith his art-canvasses to his first arrival in the world. His physical movement out of his studio is comparedto bursting out of his mother's womb: shambled dizzily to the. Opened the sliding-glass doors, noticed the presenceof no one but my wife. Shoutedto her, "God damn but I think

I've done a painting" nobody gave me a magnum or a quart or a ... baby'sbottle of confidence, andI didn't havea long, white beardanda
stepladderto the vault of the Sistine (p.50). His words here highlight the importance of Miriam in his life, since the day of his first painting when she gave him the confidence that he needed,but she now no longer gives him the sameconfidence.The consequence is that he tries to substitute his loss of confidenceby establishingthrough art his 'one-ness' with the divine. He

the 'circle of light' with Miriam as he feelsthat sheuseshim to wantsto escape project her sexualand bodily anxiety.He feels that he is treatedas a sex object

225 within this circle, as he views himself. 'anyone's whore, including my own' (p.49). Leaving the sentence incomplete, Mark suggests that he is Miriam's whore,

he sees her asa: whereas

three-mastedschoonertoday, billowing out of a harbour with a cargo of that stuff made from coconuts. Copra? And a crew of some of them her but favourable to the the sailing wind and sea are shanghaied, around the Capeof, and if she's becalmedin equatorial waters she'll get the crew at the oars, oh, they'll row for the lady and live on hard track (p.49).

The metaphor of 'schooner' refers to Miriam's uncontrollable sexuality. By using

the imageof 'crew' who 'will row for the lady andlive on hardtrack', Mark refers him to the 'hard track' for her sexualsatisfaction. to how Miriam pushes
This utteranceis followed by Mark leaning 'on the end of the bar and peer[ing] at Miriam's face' (p.49: my emphasis).By leaning on the end of the bar, he dramatiseshow he is pushedto the margin of the 'circle of light' by Miriam and her voracious sexuality. Compared to his self-image of a 'whore' which how he

feelswhenhe is with Miriam, Mark wantsto establish anotherimageas a 'serious 'a long white beardanda- and a stepladder' painter' who hastwo requirements:
(p.48). This implies that he tries through his art to establish the 'one-ness' with God. He wants to resembleGod on earth (with his 'long white beard') as he thinks that the artist has an ability to paint 'the creation of the creation of the creation' (p.48). So for Mark, the world is remadethrough art and he tries to prove it through

Mark tries to painthis creation his territorial fight with his canvasses. on the ground described in his his himself 'crawling canvas, cross-like as cloistering room, on

226 the naked over a huge nailed-down canvas' (p. 17). This description emphasises image of crucifixion. By crawling naked on this canvas, Mark seeks salvation through art in an attemptto find a new conceptof God. His punishmentis the threat of being locked in a mental hospital in New York at the request of Miriam, who cannot take his 'disequilibrium' any longer (p.26). Mark's nakedness suggestshis attempt to achieve this new concept of God through bodily and physical contact with his art. Hence, he can no longer function as a God-like source of salvation and light for Miriam. This shifts him from the circle of 'one-ness' with her; Mark tries to go beyond verbal away communication to use his body for performing without the need for language. In other words, he goes through a transitional phase in an attempt to revive through

the imageof Christ on the cross,so he canbring salvationto the thesecanvasses

world through colour and light. However, unlike Williams' earlier artists, Val of Battle of Angels (1940), and the Writer in The Long Gg2dbye (1940), Mark is not an artist who is in conflict with his exterior space,rather he attempts to readdress this dilemma. However, like Sebastianin Suddenly Last Summer Mark cannot horror beauty. The in George Niesen 'The Artist against the Reality to critic relate Williams' (1977) readsthis scenein relation to Williams' in the Plays of Tennessee is it horror 'reconcile beauty' 465). (Tharpe, 1977, to that not possible and p. view Nevertheless,Mark tries to defeat the horror he finds in the beauty of his art, by trying to build 'one-ness' with God. The play ends with Miriam casting off her bracelet, symbolising her freedom from the circle of 'one-ness' with Mark. However, uttering 'I have is to go' she still entrappedwithin this circle, outside which she feels nowhere incomplete and vulnerable (The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 7, p.53).

227 Hewes views the play's ending in relation to the overriding theological questions with which the play deals. He thinks that Miriam voices a religious belief that 'in this life we must all stay within the "circle of light", which is the approving eye of God' (Crandell, 1996a, p.246). Miriam adds that her husband's error was that he thought that he could create his own 'circle of light'. From his mistake, she apparently realisesthat to continue her lustful way of life is also a doomed attempt to create her own circle; 'rather than face her husband's fate, [so] she gives up' (p.246).

Within this circle she can mould her life to the logic of the circle, for she doesnot have the courageor the power to confront the exterior spaceoutside it. Thus, she prefers to stay within this circle, which is no longer a 'circle of light' as she is left in darknessby the end of the play. Tokyo Hotel ends with the failure of Mark to build his kingdom of heaven outside the 'circle of light'. We are introduced in Small Craft Warnings (1972) to a wider circle of collective 'one-ness' built by a group of characters. The develops silence as a way of defeating linguistic entrapment,and the body is play centralizedto representthe human experienceof marginality.

228

CHAPTER 111,PART IV

FROM THE BAR IN IN THE BAR OF A TOKYO HOTEL TO MONK'S BAR IN SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS (1972): THE COMMUNAL CIRCLE OF UNITY

The sceneis a somewhatnon-realistic evocation of a bar on the beachfront in one of those coastaltowns between Los Angles and San Diego. It attracts a group of regular patronswho are nearly all so well known to it is like a community club, and more of these regulars that each other spend the whole evening there (TennesseeWilliamLPlqys 1957-1980, p.715). With this scene of 'community club' in Small Craft Warnings (1972), we move from Williams' interest in the concept of 'one-ness' between two characters(as discussed in the previous parts of this chapter) towards a complex dynamic involving more characters. This shift does not imply that Williams gives up discussing the experience of marginality during the 1970s, but rather that he developsthe medium of its representationto operateon a wider range of characters. It is important to realise that whilst Williams seems to tap into contemporary discoursesof community circulating during the 1960s,he does not tie himself to a particular school of thought or movement. It is rather that he questions the dominant American thought in the late 1960s to test the relationships between individuals and groups. In this way, Williams can be read to question the 1960s concept of ideal 'beloved, community' (most obviously linked to the Civil Rights

229 Movement) and how it can be related to the real world. Crucially, Williams it is important to account for conflict within groups,without giving up that suggests the possibility of unity. In Small Craft, he createsthis image of a community through a group of eight characters who are thrown together in the seaside bar in Southern California. With no details given about their backgrounds, they are left in an indefinite state, rather than having fixed identities. Through this lens Williams is interested in presenting their communal experience of marginality rather than focusing on them as individuals. To achieve this, the charactersenter into a series of confessionalmonologueswhich make them aware of each other's interiority. As I will argue, the sharedexperienceof anxiety results from the characters' inability to maintain the circle of 'one-ness' with each other. However, through this experiencethey are in a better position to endurethe hostility of the exterior space. The result is the achievementof a communal unity. The charactersare presentedas they do not seemingly possess sufficient power to confront pairs, primarily because in the play takes the form of four the exterior spaceon their own. Their appearance Quentin, Leona Bill, Bobby Violet and and and Bill, and Violet and Steve. pairs: Also presentedis Monk, the bartender, who cares for his customersand listens to

their confessions.
All the characterssharethe experienceof repairing to Monk's bar as a from by the image of the dark the exterior confinement suggested refuge communal foggy beach outside with its small craft. The radio voice announces'heavy seas from Point Conception south to the Mexican border' with 'fog continuing till tomorrow noon' and warns that 'extreme caution should be observed on all highways along this section of the coastline' TennesseeWilliams PlUs 1957-

230 1980, p.718). The symbolism here is that the fog signifies an external setting of interpreted bar be The can entrapment. as a spatial areaof liberation. However, this does not imply that the charactersfind absolutefreedom in the bar; rather it will be looked at as a spaceof only partial liberation. The characterscan be regarded as positioned between two spatial poles: the foggy beach outside the bar's door and the spatial area of abstract liberation in the bar's upper 'living quarters' (an important spatial area which I will discuss in a later part of this chapter). In between these two spaces is the bar's immanent setting where the community gathers. To consider Williams' broader concept of community it is important to consider the seriesof pairs that make up the broader circle. I will use the term 'oneness' to refer to the interpersonaldynamics of these pairs, which widen out into a communal circle of unity. In order to understandhow this dynamic operateswe need to focus on the character of Violet who, as the scapegoat of the play, representsan obviously marginalized characteracceptedwithin the circle of unity. We are introduced to the characterBill who tries to break out of his does Leona. This 'one-ness' circle circle of with not stand for a mutual dependence but refers to the power relationship betweenthe pair. Leona has establishedherself as a provider who feeds Bill and provides financially for him. She puts him in her trailer becausehis 'Junior' (his nickname for his genitals) gives her sexualpleasure. Feeling abused, Bill escapesfrom this situation of entrapment, leaving a notice hanging on the trailer door while Leona talks to him from the stove. Seekingrefuge in Monk's bar, Bill assertshimself in an attempt to gain self-respect as a free human being, rather than as one of Leona's belongings.In the bar he utters his wish for release:'DO YOU THINK I BELONG TO YOU? I BELONG TO MYSELF, I

231 JUST BELONG TO MYSELF' (p.723). Using capital letters and banging his bottle on the table, Bill visualiseshis anxiety at his confinement within this circle. The table in this scene stands for a visual spatial outlet of his it in he lets feel his Violet 'Junior'. Bill's 'change confinement, and underneath is by downstage Leona's angry temperament (p.721). table' the at met attitude However Leona is even confined within linguistic limits that cannot express the true nature of her anger.This results in her stopping speakingand using hesitations, pausesor resorting to physical violence to expressthis confinement. For example, in the fight scenesheusesshort incomplete sentences: CUNT! ', 'OFF 'YOUUU ... HANDS! "DON'YOU P. Following thesepausesshe 'rushes forward' to attack ...

Bill; caught by Monk she 'kicks at' his shin and 'gives Bill a wallop in the face with her cap' (p.721). Here, the sailor cap symbolises an exterior object that fail her her that to words express anxiety. She usesthe rebelling against visualises long is in for banned from 'emphasize the to violence as as she using a point' cap bar (p.719). Monk swearsto God that he must 'avoid disturbance' and violence in order to maintain discipline in his space(p.737). Consequently,when Leona fights with Bill, Monk tells her, 'I'm havin' no violence here! Never! Never! Never! From no one!' (p.721).

Leona is identified with the juke box' in Monk's bar as a visual

juke box healing liberation. The visualises and outlet of a spatial area of spatial hypnosis. Her physical movements towards it are described as 'crossing' with a look of 'ineffable sweetness'as if 'totally pacified' (p.728). The words 'crossing', 62 hypnotic jukebox her. 'pacified' and 'sweetness' maintain the effect of this on Leona is clearly trying to escapefrom the heat of the action through her use of the
62This is similar in its effect to the rum-coco that pacifies Shannon in the three-act version of lp.. uana.

232 juke box, as it calms and pacifies her. This is illustrated following the fight scene with Bill, when she crossesto the juke box and 'bend [s]over' it to find the desired her identification with the box: it is song (p.728). The act of bending demonstrates a physical visualisation of the time, with its songs spanning 'Rock, Popular and Classical' (p.720). By choosing a classical song, Leona tries to escapeinto the past and revive it to counter her feelings of disappointmentin her presentrelationship with Bill. Leona laments and grieves over the past. This is evident through her form takes the which on-stagemonologue, of reminiscing about her brother. There in accented words capitals, repetitions and ellipses: for example, are many pauses, don't, don't I No, I I ' and 'the homelinessin I mean the, I cry cry! cry! ... ... mean the ... ' (pp.733-34). As the play unfolds, Leona's changing relationship with Bill can be traced as an escapefrom her imprisoned relationship with her dead brother Haley:

the companionshipand the violin of my brother would be all I had any need for in my lifetime till my death-time! (p.734).

her Haleywas her saviour,her life andlight-force,'one beautifulthing' that saves

heart from the 'corruption' (p.734). Leona utters this sentencedirectly to Bill, which implies that Bill representsthe opposite of beauty: that is, corruption. Unlike Bill, until his death Haley fed Leona's need for power as he had the 'gift of making people's emotions uplifted, superior to them' (p.733). This is maintained by Haley's visual image standing in the church choir under the light, singing the 'Angels of Light' (p.731). The use of 'light' to describehim developshis angelic

imagewith naturalblond silky hair and 'two piecesof heaven in a humanface' -

233 Haley and Leona have a very similar relationship as that between Chicken and Myrtle in Kingdom of Earth.

In contrast to her memoryof her brother,Leonacannotbuild the same

relationship with Bill, so she tries to break the circle of 'one-ness' with him. Leona's God-like image of her brother Haley parallels another of Williams' charactersin Small Craft, Doc, who has a personified image of his God: a black man with no light on his face, He moves in the dark like a black man, a Negro miner in the pit of a lightless coal mine, obscured completely by the ... irrelevanciesand irreverenceof public worship ... standing to sing, kneeling to pray, sitting to hear the banalities of a preacher(p.735: my emphasis). He is the 'black Negro', who lacks the heavenly light of Haley. However, Doc ...

has established his 'one-ness' with this God through his profession, but now staggers in the darkness by practicing his profession illegally after losing his medical licence for operating on a patient while under the influence of alcohol. By

from a birth force into a deathforce.However,he denies this act he is transformed

this by philosophising about the close proximity of life and death: he describesboth as 'holy miracles' that are 'dark as the face of a black man, yes, that's right, a Negro' (p.735). Using the imagery of 'a black man', Doc relates death and birth to darknessand irreverence,sensingthat both forces overlap eachother. Doc's anxiety results from the loss of his medical licence, leading him to engagewith deaththrough abortion insteadof with life when delivering children. Doc talks about delivering 'a new Messiah tonight', but this sits uncomfortably

baby,who he with the past and his botcheddelivery of a three-month premature

234 puts in a shoebox while the mother haemorrhage(p.736). Trying to cover up his mistake Doc drops the box in the ocean and he gives the woman's husband fifty dollars in order to forget his name. To escape this anxiety, he establishes a fluctuating mental spaceof liberty in Monk's bar in an attempt to contendwith his

by Monk (who callshim 'Doc') notingthat This liberty is maintained confinement.

he has 'worked up a pretty good practice for a man in retirement', and helping him to deliver a baby at TreasureIsland (p.73 1). This in turn has the effect on Leona of her relinquishing her threat to report him to the authorities. Consequently he consistently refers to himself in the bar as a TICENCED PHYSICIAN' (p.752). Using capital letters, he endeavoursto maintain the purity of his profession in spite of Leona's attempt to deposehim by preventing him delivering a baby at the trailer

Island. campat theTreasure At Monk's bar, we also encounter the homosexual pair, Quentinand
Bobby. Although they initially ran the Jungle Bar, they use Monk's Placeto reflect on the break of their circle of 'one-ness'. Passingby Bobby riding his bicycle up Canyon road, Quentin picks him up from the sidewalk and they sit there 'not talking' or not even looking at 'each other' (p.738). Their lack of communicationis

feelings' by Leona 'embarrassment has (p. Quentin 738). as with guilt viewed a
from his sexual disappointmentin finding out that of guilty anxiety resulting sense Bobby is gay, as Quentin prefers sexual encounterswith heterosexualmen. Like other charactershe establishesan outlet for this anxiety by identifying with the sailfish on the wall of the bar. At this point the sailfish representsa fluctuating space of liberty with the senseof nautical adventure suggestedby its name. To further illustrate this, Leona comments: 'Christ, you have terrible eyes, the

in What theml areyou looking aff, andQuentinrefersto the fish over expression

235 the bar with a hypothetical assumption that if he wakes up some day and sees it 'swimming around' in his bedroom 'free, unconfined', he will not be surprisedand he will just say 'Oh, well ' insteadof 'my God' (p.742). Through his not making ... referenceto God, Quentin connoteshis lack of trust in God's signs on the kingdom he has: of earth because askedall the questions,shoutedthem at deaf heaven,till I was hoarsein the voice box and blue in the face, and gotten no answer, not the whisper of one, nothing at all (p.744: my emphasis).

Quentin'sGod is thereforea 'senile delinquent'(like Shannon's God in the threeThis to his questions. act versionof iguang)who is 'deaf, offering no answers in everything leadshim to find disappointment him. He parallels that might surprise the expressionin his eyes, lacking in surprise, to the illusory feeling of by the sailfish's 'goggle-eyes' look fiamazement' that givesit a 'constant suggested fish's (p. The 715). its suspended of amazement' position on the wall suggests confinement,paralleling Quentin's confinementwhich can be related to his in his homosexual disappointment He describes his experience experiences. as:
'deadening coarseness','quick', hard', 'brutal and the pattern of them is practically unchanging' (p.743). His homosexuality gradually makes him lose the feeling of being alive that comes from being surprised at what he sees in the kingdom of he for by So, tries to this compensate anxiety earth. picking up Bobby. He makes this attempt because,unlike him, Bobby still 'has the capacity for being surprised of what he sees,hearsand feels' (p.744). For Bobby, unlike others, the ocean is an exciting experience.They is 'it the Pacific' while he says in capitals 'THE PACIFIC! ' (p.740). Still say

236 confined by words, using block letters, he builds an outlet for his bodily confinement by seeking a haven in this spatial escape.Bobby's search for new adventuresand experiencesis indicated by his sweatshirt which has embroidered on the back 'Iowa to Mexico', a visual statementof his ambition for sailing and adventure(p.727). Unlike Quentin, Bobby is not so much disappointedin his homosexual partner, as he is worried about his own sexual confusion: Nebraska kids I the a of passed night with a group of on plains runaway it lovely invited A cold got after sunset. wild young girl my age and me

just blanket boy; between, both then a smile, and a with a me under and
of them kept saying "love", one of 'ern in one ear and one in the other, till I didn't know which was "love" in which ear or which touch ... Williams PlUs 1957-1980,p.746: my emphasis). (Tennessee Bobby moves between words and 'touch', which together symbolically represent his confusion about his own sexual identity. He is clearly confused, embodied in his being visually stuck betweenthe girl and the boy on the plains of Nebraska.He flees from the public disapproval of homosexuality, the 'suspicion and talk and then public outrage and action' against gays in Goldenfield, retreating to a place

by his is ironically he moreconfined anxiety. where he stopsat the bar andis ableto establish To escape the persecution an
into his by breaking long anxiety a confessionalmonologue littered with outlet of referencesto the remote spaces of 'the plains of Nebraska', 'Iowa', and 'THE PACIFIC'. This maintains his spatial escapefrom his sexual confinement, which

break to the of his circle of 'one-ness' contributes with Quentin.By the endof Act

237 I, he refuses Leona's offer to give him 'protection' by staying with her in the trailer. He announces that he has 'got a lot of new adventures,experiences, to think over alone' (p.747). These characters find themselves in a communal circle of unity through their shared experienceof confinement. This brings them together within the communal spaceof the bar to confront their solitary anxieties. It is in this way their circle of 'one-ness' is widened to include more than two charactersin order to individual's collective scale ward each operateon a and off confinement. Through the image of the bar's community, Williams is concernedwith exploring but also transcendingthe liberal movementsof the 1960s.He questionsthe Christian model by ideal 'beloved the communities' creating a dramatic place which also allows of for conflict. Within this community there are simultaneous signs of unity and tension. For example, in Act I, Monk, Steve, Bill and Doc prevent Leona from dispossessingDoc of his medical kit, when her motive was to stop him from delivering a baby at the trailer camp. By regaining his kit from Leona, they are collectively presentedas united, working together to maintain Doc's self image as a birth force. Starting toward the door after snatching his bag, Leona is blocked by

'one of the men' (p.736). Shethen attempts to move 'in anotherdirection' but her
four is blocked (p. 736). Approached 'from three once again path or sidesby Monk, Doc, Bill and Steve' the whole scene suggests'a quartet in opera' with 'several its but blended separateplaint' (p.736: my emphasis).The each pursuing voices in 'blended' relation to voice suggeststhat the unity within this community word

takesa verbalform.
This idea is developedby the set of onstageconfessionalmonologues.

Listening to the monologues each character realisesanother'sinteriority, which

238 helps to merge them into one unity. Each character projects his or her interiority onto another until we end with a circular chain of projection. One character's monologue provokes another character to start his/her monologue and so on in a chain reaction. For example, the monologues of the homosexual pair Bobby and Quentin provoke Bill into a long confessional monologue. After his monologue, Bill, castsback towards the pair his own anxiety that was causedby his relationship with Leona, through his sentenceto Monk 'y' can't insult 'em, there's no way to bring 'em down expectto beat 'em and roll 'em' (p.728). Here, he refers to his own homosexuality. He follows this with the words, 'I don't like beating 'em. up. They can't help the way they are', verbalising his own anxiety which resulted from his inability to confront his homosexuality (p.729). This he projects onto the pair, as he homosexuality. his to own cannot admit The bar's staging maintains the communal unity. it is presentedas a its integrated without barriers, so the characters parts unified spatial zone with behind the bar can hear what other says at the table downstage. Whenever any into a verbal monologue, he or she does not stand in spatial character enters isolation, rather the stage dims and a 'special spot comes up' to illuminate the character(p.728). Act I ends with Monk 'collecting the empty cans and bottles, emptying ash trays on a large serving tray' (p.747). At this point Monk is symbolically gathering the remains of the characters' disappointments and anxieties. The circular shape of the tray suggests that it is a symbol of the communal circle. He says in his concluding monologue: 'I want a small steady I handle brings in that that can alone, a small, steady profit' (P.747: my place image Monk's maintaining emphasis), as the monitor of this circle. The word

239 his territorial dominanceover the bar. In addition, he controls the 'handle' suggests charactersto a large extent; for example, during the fight scenehe gives Violet ladies' lavatory: 'Violet, you can come out, now' to the come out of permission (p.729).

To realise this territorial dominance,Monk locateshimself spatially in a superior position to other characters through the visual image of his upstairs 'living quarters'. By locating these quarters above the stairs superiority is

look the which other characters must up to: suggested, it hits them dimly that you might needthe solaceof their companionship find it they there some nights when convenient to offer it to you up (p.716).

Doc's words describethe arrangementbetweenMonk and the charactersin the bar. On the other hand, Monk needs these characters' 'companionship'. He loves 'to come down those steps' to 'the place for the evening', as it makes him 'feel not alone' (p.748). He feels that he will 'die some night up those steps ... in the night alone', and has a fear of loneliness that is associatedwith the night (p.748). He escapes the night by going down to the bar, listening to these characters' confessions to offer them a fluctuating refuge of liberation. Here the set of fluctuating between these characters,through space of creates a unity monologues liberate loneliness. Drawing on thereby their their and each can share anxiety which Thomas Adler's argument in 'The Dialogue of Incompletion: Language in TennesseeWilliams' Later Plays' (1975), Monk is viewed as 'something of a (Adler, 1975, 51): priest/analyst' p. combination

240 I'm fond of, I've got an affection for a sincere interest in my regular customershere ... and all their personalproblems, I want to know that, Williams Plgys 1957-1980,p.748). too (Tennessee Adler sees these characters as 'patients' whose relationship with Monk is hearing 'the stories, the jokes, the confidencesand confessions since reciprocal, feel him not alone' (Adler, p.51). However, in my reading Monk holds a makes superior statusto the others. Stagewisehe always refers to his spatial superiority: 'they seethose stairs. They know I live up there' (Tennessee Williams PlUs 19571980, p.716). Everyone in the bar looks for him going up the stairs toward his living quarters.

When Leonasuddenlytries to rush for the stairs,Monk's useof the

his 'my' to the stairs pronoun refers as spatial territorial: 'Nobody's up possessive down (p. Come 722). He controls the movements up and down those' my stairs! these stairs towards the territory of salvation: 'the living quarters'. Left unstaged and hidden, the living quartersimply a senseof holiness. This is maintainedby the visual description of the stairs as 'masked above the first few steps' (p.715). This suggeststhe ambiguity and mystery related to this 'flight of stairs' which 'ascends the bar-owner's living quarters' (p.715). The very use of the word 'flight' suggests 63 for from immanent bar. The these the characters an escape spatial area of the characterslook at it as an area of escapeto which they resort whenever they feel bar the the of or when the action gets heated.To emphasise within space confined this, Leona tries to rush for the stairs when she feels frustrated in the fight scene

63This is a reference to the shift from the horizontal shape suggestedby the bar into the vertical shapeof the steps.Although Williams still setsthe conceptof unity in this play within an immanent setting, the vertical spatial areaof the stairs initiates the return to the vertical, triangle-like setting of his plays before Small Cra such as Iguan h I and Earth. This will be developed later in te the play Vieux Carrd (1977). conclusion,which discusses

241 with Violet, as she gets no reaction or sound from her. However, the characters continue to move horizontally within the space, and most of their spatial movementsarc those of 'starting towards', 'crossing', 'returning to the table's bar',

'turning abouton the bar's stool', and 'coming downstage'. Nevertheless, thereis
in an exception Violet's vertical movement up the stairs towards the living quarters at the end of the play. Metaphorically, by going up these steps to the 'living quarters', a licence to be part of the bar's communal circle of unity is given to Violet. Her vertical movement up the steps visualises her being elevated spatially and

his In to themas 'my stairs',Monk is the this sense, after reference metaphorically.
guardian through whose permission she can ascend the stairs. This is implied towards the end of the play where Monk differentiates betweenthree spatial areas: 'there's tavems licenced for rooms, and tavems licenced for liquor and food and ' (p.764). Left incomplete, the liquor, and I am a tavem only licenced for ... sentence suggests that he is licenced for the 'vulnerable vessels' (p.718). Overlapping the incomplete sentencewith Violet's 'tone and suggestionof such

it break heart that the would of a stone'Williams conjures ultimatesupplication up her asoneof thesevessels (p.764). to Monk to accept the imageof her resorting
It is not until she is acceptedwithin the circle that Violet functions as for the other characters' anxiety. She is there to amusethem, by a symbolic object is her hand which always 'out of sight' as a releasefor their anxiety. She is using identified with the amusementsuggestedby the name of her place of residence: 'the amusementarcade' (p.717). Her hand's position parallels the structure of her living space.In other words, she lives in a 'room with no bath that's directly over

the amusement arcadeat the foot of the pier ... over the billiards ... the pin ball

242 games,and the bowling alleys' (p.722). The description of her place visualisesher as stuck spatially 'at the foot of the pier' and objecting to violation by the exterior space, through being exposed all day to the sound of the 'billiards' and the 'bowling' games(p.722: my emphasis).Her spaceis violated by the exterior spatial sound of 'bang, bang, loud as a TV western, all day and night' (p.722). Thus, she from Monk's bar to to this violation, establishing a spatial resorts escape identification with the downstagetable under which she feels men's genitals. This area is again ironically violated by the charactersin the bar. Violet is marginalized within the bar's community and is isolated from their circle of unity. This is visualised from the very beginning of the play when she sits at the 'downstage table' with her suitcase(p.715). Being positioned downstagemaintains her spatial inferiority to the other characters.This is further that 'suggestsa derelict kind of existence' maintained by her physical appearance (p.715). The word 'derelict' maintains her marginality within the bar. This is by description: Doc's affirmed She's a noticeablething. She has a sort of not-quite-with-it appearance. Amorphous, that's the word. Something more like a possibility than a

(p.716). completed creature

The word 'amorphous' implies that she is still in the process of being defined something she has not yet achieved.Consequentlyshe is a 'possibility' more than a 6completed'creature(p.716). This incompletion is linked to her inability to be part her from an object into being a the communal circle of unity which can change of part of this unity.

243 On the one hand she is exposedto Steve's violation. He projects on her his bodily confinement which results from his ageing. He describesher as a 'pig' and 'onc of thosc scraps', 'thc bonc', but 'somcthing's bcttcr than nothing' (p.729). His description of Violet emphasises Doc's initial description of her as an object and a low-level creaturerather than a complete human being. Steveusesher to releasehis sexual frustration, as 'unmarried, forty-seven years old, employed as a short-order cook at a salary he can barely get by on alone, he can't be choosy' (p.729). Thus, he has to be satisfied by continually going to her. She gives him sexual pleasurefor providing her with a 'few beers' and a 'hot dog'. Stagewise,in common with other characters,he pushesher away from this communal circle of

bar her in he decides Act I 'sit So to the to pay and no attention when she at unity.
comes out' (p.730). She comes out of the bathroom to 'edge into a bar stool' (p.730). The word 'edge' visualises this marginality within the bar. This is her: her. 'Steve She by towards the at of other characters glares attitude maintained his looking him', 'Leona 'Bill table' grins and chuckles at at and while avoids ignores the fact that Violet has emergedfrom her retreat' (p.730). Not until she is leave does by 'get Steve the table', this to that sit off stool and at she again called involve in herself by her 'you (p. 731). Leona tries the telling then to action stool is in her. be (p. 731). She She's to to moved' moved or out of the got move got sceneas an object, called on for amusement.When she is not neededshe is pushed back to the two marginalized spatial areas:the 'ladies' or a 'bar Stools.
64

In responseto this, Violet carries on 'singing a bit' in short phrases: 'the wheel of fortune keeps turning"around ' (p.715). Leaving the sentence ... incomplete, she cannot rememberbeyond this line. Apparently, words are futile as
64The I ladies' toilet is positioned in the play as a marginalized spatial areaas it is set in the wall at the right.

244 an expressionof her feeling of confinement. Throughout the play she is identified with the following sounds: 'sobbing', 'scream', 'shrilly', 'howling out' 'sobs' and 'wails'. She does not enter into a confessionalmonologue; rather she is identified with these soundsthat she 'cries out in affected terror' (p.730). Only towards the end of Act I does Violet have a short monologue, with the light focused on her, in the context of Leona's accusation of her living out of suitcase 'uPstairs from the it looks (p. Violet 762). at as a 'temporary arrangement', amusement arcade' implies She the that she plans to be part of the samesentence. constantly repeating communal circle of unity in order to achieve a senseof belonging, and realising that Monk is the key to this plan she repeatedly appeals to him. This is demonstratedwhen, on being moved by Steve to the upper table, she protests by reaching for Monk's drink twice. This is verbally answeredby Monk: 'that's mine! Here's yours' (p.73 1). The time has clearly not come yet for her to be acceptedby

Monk asoneof this communal circle.

In order to achieve acceptanceViolet has to initially be invited to

65 Sitting this table the the circle. with Monk at the table, characters of with share
Leona casually invites Violet: 'Aw, hell, Violet. Come over and sit down with us, having (p. With 761: the use of 'all' and of my emphasis). a cap, all us' night we are 'us", there is an implicit reference to this communal circle where Violet is is drinks When to the table. the sit at and allowed are poured ultimately accepted from the bottle, shehitches her chair close to Monk's. Then she deliberately drops a matchbook under the table, 'bends to retrieve it and the hand on Monk's side will has become (p. 762). Realising Violet to the table that part of this surface' not return

her hand is she notices under the table, Leona reflects on communalcircle as

65Here the referenceis to the circular shapeof the table as a visual image of this circle of unity.

245 Violet's constant need to cling to 'something she hopes can hold her together' (p.763). This parallels the visual image of Violet holding Monk's genitals. Unlike others, Monk grants Violet accessto the communal circle, while in the eyes of the others she is just an object of anxiety. They can only offer her a 'temporary arrangement',whilst with Monk she is offered a more permanentstateof belonging in which they can build a stateof 'trance together' (p.764). Finally, Violet goes up the stairs, taking off the shoes and heading towards Monk's 'living quarters'. The act of taking the shoesoff addsa theological dimension to the ascent of the stairs. This implies that the 'living quarters' by represent a spatial area of resurrection, as suggested the word 'living'. Her ascent provides a rebirth for Violet and preparesher to be part of the communal bar. it In the the to that order enter she has operateson spatial areaof circle of unity to first be clean: 'do not forget to shower ... I'm not going up there till I hear that licences her (p. 765). This Monk entrance a guardian who casts as shower running' in C. his her Philip Kolin 'Having between 'quarters'. these essay and and mediates Williams' Small Lost the Ability to Say: "My God": The Theology of Tennessee Craft Wamings' (2002) argues that like Thomas Merton (the contemporary Trappist monk), Monk 'offers the charactersin Small Craft Christian acceptance, in by his Jesus Christ " hope, " secularly sacerdotal principles proposed mercy, ... 119). 2002, (Kolin, p. capacity'

Although the presentstudy does not relate Monk to a particular

between in is having fulfilled he holy figure, task mediating still seenas a religious the bar's community and the absent and abstract God. Violet's words 'God love 'labyrinthitis' Like Monk, the touch crossing while stairs with of me' a you, Williams PlUs 1957-1980,p.764) are read by Kolin as 'redolent of a (Tennessee

246 faith that is at once simple and sensualbut also one that brings her a resurrection (sustenance and love) upstairs in Monk's apartment' (Kolin, 2002, p. l. 17). Finally, when Violet ascendsthe stairs, neither she nor the audience knows what will occur or what kind of procedure she has to follow to be a part of this circle. We simply know that shewill stay temporarily: dirty, wom out-slipper still being wom but still set by the bed to be ... wom again the next day, walked on her ... I will not touch her, I'll have no contact with her (lennessee Williams PlUs 1957-1980,p.765). Monk's words imply that his task moves from the sensuality suggested by Kolin to

Violet to these'quarters'wherethe abstract Godresides. someone who introduces

This God loves Violet as he loves Monk. He is the loving, caring and life-giving God. He is the God to whom the bar's community confesses.Using the stagelight to highlight their monologues,a visual image of theological confessionto this God is suggested.Locating most of these verbal confessions in the downstage area symbolisesthe characters' spatial inferiority during these confessionalmoments to the God who residesabove them. As Monk is always positioned in the bar area,he

between God. the crowdandthe absent playsthe role of mediator Here the bar is viewed as their only area of spatial liberation, as
discussed previously. However, setting it between the salvation of the upper 'quarters' and the entrapmentof the ocean outside, suggestsit is a middle area. In lies the liberation of the characters.Certain visual techniques in the such an area play extemalise this concept. The sailfish is a visual symbol which parallels what I

'Hookedand shellacked will call the 'in-between'situationof the characters. and

is like in the the the play stuck and suspended sailfish up' characters strung

247 betweenan 'over' position like a flag and a 'lesser' position like that of 'creatures' that have never sailed in their lives (p.727). The charactersenjoy a degreeof liberation as they realise that absolute freedom cannot be achieved. Paradoxically they need to feel entrappedto be free, as this liberation is monitored by God's absentpower that controls the characters' movement between liberation and entrapment.It is the unseenpower of God that offers them liberation and confinement and to whom they confess. There is a between liberation is relation and confinement which reciprocal visualised through the interdependencybetween the exterior foggy beach and the bar. For example, crossing to open the door at the end of the play, Monk leavesthe door open 'for a few minutes to clear the smoke and liquor smell out of the place, the human odors' (p.765). Here the fog is an indirect visual image of the entrapment which awaits them outside the bar whenever they leave this communal unity, and which is why their liberation is not absolute. Monk is the only character who understandsthis mechanismby understandingthe sound of the ocean: 'it has a private soundto it, a sound that's just for itself and for me [Monk]' (p.765). After opening the doors for the smell to be cleared, he closes it to reset the bar once again as a place for liberation. Here 'taking advantageof the ocean (water) as healing, cleansing, and life-giving', the play closes with 'the boom of the ocean outside', the sound of resolution and purification' (Kolin, 2002, p. 112).

248

CONCLUSION

Poster designed by the author using shots from Tennessee Williams' idea the of 'one-ness' as a suggested vision of liberation visualise

early plays to for Tennessee

Williams' minorities.

249 CONCLUSION

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

BEYOND MARGINALITY:

VIEUX CARRt (1977)

Hell is yourself. When you ignore other people completely, that is hell (Tennessee Williams in 'The Angel of the Odd' (1962), p.53, in Stanton,p. 139).

As this thesishasdemonstrated, the solipsisticobsession with the self is the 'hell'

Williams wrote between 1940 that confines the charactersof the plays Tennessee and 1960. However, as I have argued,in his later plays, beginning with Small Craft WamLngs(1972), Williams' focus on the confined self expands to include unity within a community of selves,representinga degreeof freedom rather than a single

In Small Craft, for example, the vision of communityis character's confinement.

in is bar. Self-effacement Monk's this shown within unity suggestedas an avenue for liberation and, at the sametime, an assurance that a loving God eXiStS.
66

This is

dramatises, through that the ability of a set of confessional represented monologues the community to work together to be liberated from marginality, moving towards

66 Self-effacement is a term used by Thomas P. Adler in 'The Search for God in the Plays of TennesseeWilliams' (1973) and it includes 'meaning God to another person'. Adler views it as 'difficult, since it requires not using or abusing the other for one's own aggrandisement'(Adler, 1973,p.48).

250
an 'in-between space of liberation' to escape the confinement of the hostile exterior 67 space.

However, five years later, Williams' idea of a loving God is developed further in Vieux Carr6 (1977), in an abstract vision of what the deity stands for. This vision is made manifest through the symbol of 'Sky'. Only briefly describedin the stage directions, Sky represents this symbolic vision, rather than being a dramatic character himself.68 The play introduces, through the character of the Writer (the memorialist-narrator),the fulfilment of 'one-ness' within this vision, by transcending the self-effacement through the communal unity of the rooming house.This is not to imply the abandonmentof this unity, but rather that it is used 69 for as a means this transcendence.

The 'past' which confines Williams' earlier characters,such as NamedDesire,still Amandain The GlassMenagrie and Blanchein A Streetcar into an functionsin this play as a means However,it is developed of confinement. his him from Writer force the that and prevents achieving entraps antagonistic liberation away from the rooming house'stenantswho signify communalunity. This imageof the pastreturnsthroughout the play in the form of the ghostof his 70 in his deadgrandmother, who occasionally appears the alcoveof room. The play dramatises the Writer's maturationby moving away from his confinementto
67Small Craft ends with a suggestedfluctuating 'in-between form of liberation' (offered by Monk) and confinement (suggestedby the small craft vessels).As I have argued,the characters' centrality and liberation lie in betweenthesetwo areas. 68 Sky is described as a 'lean, gangling young man, whose charming but irresponsible nature is apparent in his genial grin' (The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 8, p.69). His indefinitenessis maintained by his referring to himself as a 'fugitive from - from legal wedlock in Tampa, Florida, which the prettiest little bitsy piece of it you ever did see.There now the ribbon's reversing,it slipped out of the slots like I slipped out of matrimony in Tampa' (p.69). 69This should be contrastedwith Mark in Tokyo Hotel who fails to achieve'one-ness' with God by breaking away from the circle of light and his 'one-ness' with Miriam. He is punished at the end of the play by death. 70The full-length play is an expansion of Williams' short story 'The Angel in the Alcove' (1943, pub. 1948),which takes place in the sameboarding-housein New Orleans.

251 achieve unity with the vision of the abstract God, attained by following Sky. This developmentparallels the spatial construction of the play. Here Williams returns to using a vertical setting, in this instance the 'three-storey building' of the rooming house which recalls the staging used in his plays of the 1960s: The Night of the Iguan and Kingdom of Earth (The Theatre of TennesseeWilliams, Volume 8, p.4). By following Sky, the Writer does not break away totally from communal unity with the tenantsof the rooming houseand revert to his individual self-cell, as is the casewith Williams' earlier plays where charactersare entrapped within their selves. Rather, he controls his self-effacement within this unity by internalising it within the fluctuating spaceof his memory. In this way he crosses the threshold of an 'in betweenform of liberation' that separates pure freedom from 71 total confinement. This vision operateswithin his mental fluctuating space. He can monitor this unity by recollecting it as a memory whenever he wants, by narrating the storyline of the play. In this sense,the play developsthe circle of communal unity in Small Craft from an exterior experienceinto an interior one that acts on the 'lighter areas' of the Writer's memory (p.5). The characters' movementson the stage are shaped in relation to this area,which is visualised through the circle of light. Here the use of the word 'light' signifies the use of the 'spotlight' that shifts from the Writer when he narrates the story to focus on the charactersinvolved in the action. His words at the beginning of the play, 'now they enter the lighter areas of my imply that there are two spatial areasin his memory: a shadowy area and memory', a lighted area (p.5). He recollects these charactersand their experiences,pushing
7' This is a referenceto the 'in-between areaof liberation' that is in Small Cra suggested .

252 the 'shadowy occupantslike ghosts' into the 'lighter areas'. For example, the first appearance of Mrs. Wire is described as she 'assumes her active character in the play' (p.5: my emphasis).The word 'assumes' suggeststhat she is taking an active in is the after she role play revived by the Writer's memory. With the movement of the 'spotlight' there is a shift in the play's setting. Through the use of the spotlight, we move from the front stage to the Writer's cubicle, then to the studio area. When a spatial area is the focus of the action, the light is simply shone onto it. Moreover, the spatial movements of the charactersare always describedin relation to the 'lighted spot'. They are made part of the action by being within this circle of light, while they are taken out of the action by crossingits edge.When the Writer leaves,he is describedas 'crossing out of the light', which precedeshis exit from the scene (p.32). Here, taking place within this 'spotlight', the play is set in one zone, where no spatial boundaries the characters.It is of less significance whether or not the charactersare all separate in one room at the sametime, involved in dialogue that brings them together, than it is that they sharethe experienceof being bound togetherwithin this 'spotlight'. Within this dramatic space, the play explores the rooming house's community as an image of communal unity in disintegration. Rodney Simard in 'The Uses of Experience: TennesseeWilliams in Vieux Carre' (1985) views the charactersin the rooming house as trying 'to connect and form bonds that would make them survivors in a modem oasis' (Simard, p.5). The word 'oasis' parallels the description of the city, which is 'eight feet below sea level' Qe Tennessee Williams Theatre of

Volume 8, p.38). This represents a visual image that

externalisesthe interiority of the characters.They experiencevisible decay with no salvation, and all are individually doomed in different ways. It is the Writer who,

253 having witnessed their failure to break away from their unity, abandonsthem in is dramatisation In this the to sense, play a order survive. of the Writer's survival; he seemsto have the drive to preservehis self-integrity and maturity away from the demandsof the communal unity. Williams reveals that, if carried to the point of a

become is form This obsession, such unity consuming will a of confinement.

visualised by the charactersof Janeand Mrs. Wire; unlike the Writer, who is ready to move away at the end of the play, these charactersdemonstratewhat happens when one dependstotally on this unity. The purpose of this concluding chapter is to explore the movement beyond the 'in-between area' of communal unity, towards liberation. The character of the Writer charts this movement, and the play will be seen to express the Writer's experience of maturity, from a confined marginalized character into a liberated person. Here the memory of the Writer is read as a place of his confinement, from which he will be liberated by the end of the play. The play by Writer the exploring the spacewhich the charactersoccupy within centralises the scope of his memory. This will be read in relation to his escape from the into developed has that a space of confinement. However, the communal unity focus is but it. decay The the the not on unity, rather on main of characterswithin Writer helps the audiencevisualise other characters'confinementthrough the act of narration, and becomes a symbol of liberation rather than being a dramatic characterhimself. These themes will be examined in relation to the decline within this unity of the characterof Jane, to the Writer's own enlightenment and maturation, and at the same time his departure into the abstract concept of liberation. This is his Williams in that the toward argue will successful end of creating, conclusion

254 dramatic career,a characterready to move beyond the margin. Here 'margin' will be considered as the threshold of the 'in-between area', which other characters it is departure from the the confinement of the Writer's memory cannot pass over; which constitutesthe last fluctuating barrier betweenhim and his freedom. The action of the play takes place in 'a rooming house, No. 722

Street,in the FrenchQuarterof New Orleans' he Theatre Toulouse of Tennessee

72 4). Williams, Volume 8, p. The time is the 'period between winter 1938 and spring

19399,a transitional moment between two seasons(p.4). This parallels the visual setting: 'various playing areas may be distinguished by sketchy partitions and doorframes' (p.4). The 'partitions' and 'doorfrarnes' suggest spatial barriers between two areas, where each stands for a specific stage in the Writer's own enlightenment and maturation. By crossing over these barriers, spatially and in This is illustrated further by the description of time, a transformation is suggested. the two alcove cubicles separated by plywood which 'provides a minimal between (p. Writer 4). Here (spatially) the the painter' and an older separation barrier', Writer's 'spatial the symbolic on one side of which plywood standsas a transformational areais implied. Nightingale is depicted as 'an older painter, a terribly wasted man, dying of tuberculosis, but fiercely denying this circumstanceto himself; words

him death, illusion (p.4: my emphasis). to sickness physical and which relate
Locating both Nightingale and the Writer within 'a pair of alcoves' with the diseased barrier Writer to these the the plywood, vulnerability of of minimal is characteristics suggested.In this sense,Nightingale is pivotal in 'revealing the
Writer's The the of character'. setting puts Nightingale's nature corrupted and

72 buildingin which Williamsrentedanattic roomin New Orleans in the latethirties. It is thesame

255 in form art contrast with the Writer's pure art and innocence.However, earthly of the Writer needsto crossover the barrier before he can move into maturity. Elsewhereon the stage,there is the studio inhabited by JaneSparks,a fashion designer, and Tye McCool, a drug addict who works at a Bourbon Street strip-joint. Located on the third floor, it is separatedfrom the gabled cubicles by a narrow hall with skylight. There are curved stairs that join two areas: the lower from the street entrance', and the upper area,the 'rear of a dark narrow passageway 'kitchen area' (p.4). Most of the action takesplace in the kitchen, which symbolises a sharedspatial area, where the communal unity betweenthesetenantstakes place. Also featured in the play are Mary Maude and Miss Carrie, who look for food in bins and are comic in their scruffily genteel attemptsto maintain their dignity, and Nursie, the maid who offers comfort for Mrs. Wire with her wisdom and religious beliefs. These three characters seem to play no important role in the Writer's emotional illumination, rather they serve to complete the variety of the communal unity in the play. These charactersare all watched by the domineering landlady, Mrs. Wire, who revives the image of Monk in, Small Craft. Echoing Monk's relationship inhabitants his bar, the these tenants are Mrs. Wire's 'solace of with of companionship', and she brings them together within a communal unity. In Scene Seven,when the patrol forces entersthe boarding house, after she pours hot water into the photographer's basement,a visual image of this unity is presentedby all 73 in kitchen the tenantsgathering the area. In this scene,she is describedas a 'field marshal' who holds them together: 'all, all! Will stay right here', 'everybody in
73 The photographeris one of the tenantson whom Mrs. Wire spies,and on whom she pours boiling water through the hole in the floor that has exposed his orgiastic party. He is not involved as a characterwithin the action of the play; it is unclear whether he appearson the stage.

256 here stay here and sit tight till the facts are reported' (p.59). Her purposeis to unite thesecharactersand to provide a structural focus for their unity. However, Mrs. Wire does not function as a liberating force for the characters; rather she entraps them on the premises. She tries to monitor their spatial movements; for example, in SceneOne she sleepsin the entrancehall, and askedby Nightingale why is she doing this, she replies: to 'watch on the comings and goings at night of tenants in my house' (p. 11: my emphasis).With the use of the possessivepronoun 'my', her territorial surveillance is suggested.She moves freely within her territory; in SceneNine, she appearsa few stepsbelow the Writer, and then she moves to appearagain behind him. On hearing Tye insulting Jane,she simply bursts into their room. To maintain her surveillance, she entraps the characters within darkness; visualised by the dark setting where the light bulbs are burned out. Reading 'light' as a symbol of salvation, Mrs. Wire in this sensecannot act as a light-force who can bring salvation to this unity.74She even doubts God and what is

Nursie abouther view on God's written in the Bible. For example,shechallenges

word 'let there be light' by telling her 'you hear him say that' (p.6). By denying Nursie's words, she doubts His existence and the very significance of the divine light. Leaving all the parts in the housedimly lit, with no light bulb in the hall, the

Mary MaudeandMiss Carriecannot'distinguish stumbleinto darkness. characters

from day any more. Only Shadowscome in' (p.37). Using her flashlight to night

to eachcharacter revealwho is enteringinto her territorial place,we areintroduced

as they make their way through the entrance. The flashlight stands as a visual

74This is in contrast to Monk in, Small Craftwho mediatesbetween his bar's community and the light of salvation: a symbol of the loving God up in the 'living quarters.

257 symbol of Mrs. Wire's surveillance over her tenants,and at the sametime functions light the as actual allowing them onto her premises. Following her argumentwith Mrs. Wire about the divine light, Nursie stumblesacrossthe heavy knapsackwith the word 'Sky' on it. Left by 'some crazy young man' who 'dropped' it 'on the floor and said he'd pick it up tomorrow', a 6). (p. is between light in 'Sky' the the suggested concept of play and parallel Describing the knapsackas having 'something written on it that shinesin the dark', there is an implicit referenceto the divine light mentioned in the scriptures,which can rescuethe tenants from the darknessof the house (p.6). By asking Nursie to carry it upstairs, Mrs. Wire createsa spatial distance between the tenants and this knapsack as a light force. The word 'knapsack' is synonymous with the word 'backpack', which may be related to what Nursie mentions about 'bag people': they's lots of folks my age, black an' white, that's called bag people. They just wander round with paper bags that hold everything they days Nights doorsteps: they they or can collect. spend sleep on possess boxes on comers of Canal Street with a tin cup. They get along: they on live-long as intendedto by the Lord (p.7). This quotation equates this light with wandering, adventures, lack of spatial (p. 7). So, intended by Lord' 'live-long the to to the and opportunity coordinates, as for the charactersto achievethis light, they must follow the ideals that marginalized 'bag people' stand for. However, Mrs. Wire neither affords this to her tenants,nor it. them to allows achieve She tries to entrap them in order not to be left alone;
1)

when Nursie suggestsretiring and becoming one of those 'bag people', Mrs. Wire

her thatNursie'splaceis therewith her. assures

258 Nevertheless, Mrs. Wire cannot maintain her control over this her is for illusion long, lives illusion. Her to related as she an communal unity confinement within the past into which she retreats.The visual image of Mrs. Wire her late bottle Mr. Wire' 'belonged to the that to the shocking after resorting feels into in her the the alone court symbolises retreat pastwhenevershe experience (p.65). This is embodied in her view of herself in relation to the rooming house. She describesit as 'the most historical street in the Vieux Carrd', with 'valuable is ladies', distinguished the taxpayer tenants, she society where paying (responsible.Reputable.Known to the authorities on the list of attractions' (P.89). Her illusion is related to her purpose; maintaining the morality of her house by is built Quarter fight 'against this the that on' corruption and evil putting up a (p.57). This corruption refers to the characters' 'vice', something she cannot tolerate, unlike 'the society folk in this city' (p.55). In this sense,as Simard argues, Mrs Wire tries to play the role of 'a guardian of morality and a regulator of newfound freedom' (Simard, p.4).75 Towards the end of the play, her mind begins to slip as she realises that she lives the illusion of a communal unity which no longer gives her the 6solaceof companionship'. She realises gradually that 'there's so much loneliness in this housethat you can hear it. Set still and you can hear it: a sort of awful-softin in 'groaning' (p. 65). The loneliness the the of all walls' sound resides groaning that she feels like an 'ache in ev'ry bone' of her body, and the only way for her to is it is loneliness landlady Although this through the not screaming. as project in for her 'it disturb to the tenants', scream as would she nevertheless permitted Scene Seven ends up doing so. Her 'piercing cry' dramatises her confinement
75 Her intoleranceis like that of Mrs. Fellowes in The Night of the Iguana who plays a similar role in her treatment of Charlotte. She will not tolerate Charlotte's sexual relationship with Shannon,the thing which maintains the conflict of his interior sexuality with the exterior space.

259 within her physical pain, resulting from her anxiety within this unity and 76 'night fear in is loneliness her fear This the the after specifically of age. generated feel in 'completely to court' scene,where she starts alone the world, a solitary ole 77 by (p. 65). woman cared no one' The absence of the light as a salvation force within this unity transforms the stage into a space of entrapment. Like the city they inhabit, the characterswithin this unity are 'below the sealevel', yet believing that they are all 'above water level' (pp.31-38). They drown under their frustrated anxiety that feel. The from by 'evasion', they their what constant made not speaking results 'the Jane image the the says, as city symbolises characters' anxiety; of visual climate here is debilitating. Perhapsbecauseof the dampnessand the, and the level' it's low there's sea under slightly no altitude at all, altitude, really very (p.3 1: my emphasis).The only possibility of altitude is for them to seeka way up to lifeHowever, the them a absence of spatially and metaphorically. with elevate force in Vieux Carr6 the charactersremain confined, symbolised by them being falling level'. 'below The 'below' the the of these sea word suggests stuck charactersinto an areathat can be describedas underneaththe 'in-between area' of liberation.78 In other words, with the word 'below', a spatial and metaphorical degradationis suggested.Hence, the way out for them is to go up from this lower hesitant However, these to make this crossing. characters are area.

76This recalls the image of Blanche in A StreetcarNamed Desire who also projects her anxiety through sound; however in her casethe anxiety is manifest as self-entrapmentas discussedin the first chapterof the thesis. 77Monk in Small CTa setshimself as superior to his tenantsby bearing his loneliness.This helps him function as a life-force for his customers.In contrast, Mrs. Wire in Vieux Carr6 is too weak to be the life-force for the tenantsin the rooming house. 78This is a referenceto the 'in-between areaof liberation' evident in Small Craft.

260 Within the communal unity, Janeis dependenton Tye, who stops her from feeling lonely. However, to be with him, she has been degradedspatially and socially. She flees her New England home with a dream of being a fashion designer, and searches for a start in New Orleans. She witnesses a spatial degradation by moving from 'the Adirondacks' where she used to live on 'high ground, good elevation', to New Orleans with its debilitating climate and no 'altitude at all' (p.31). Meanwhile, she is degradedmetaphorically by sharing her life with Tye who works 'all night at a Bourbon Street strip joint', involved 'with all the underworld elements of this corrupt city' (p.33). Jane carries on her relationship with him out of her constantneedfor comfort. He has a hypnotic effect on her that confines her movement; through his bodily hold she achievesa form of comfort. In SceneNine, when she askshim to move out of the house,he insists that he 'just want to comfort' her: 'can't we just rest together? Can't we? Rest and comfort each otherT (p.88: my emphasis). A temporary comfort is achieved through lying down, hence Tye repeatsthrough the scenesentences that maintain this position: 'come back,to bed'; 'I'll undressyou'; 'lie down with me and hold me'. These declarationshave a drearn-like effect on her and maintain her gradual degradation.This is symbolically visualised by the parallels between her words in SceneSevenand the offstage voice saying 'Edwina, Edwina, come seethis dream of little courtyard. Oh, my, yaiss, like a dream' (p.85). These sentencesfollow Jane'swords: 'among other things, many other undreamedof before, you've taught me to practice deception' (p.85). Here, 'deception' parallels the word 'dream' in the first context, as she has been living with him in a dream that allows her to accept the fact of 'living with a young bum employed by gangstersand using her place as a depository for hot merchandise'(p.81). However, Jane's 'sensual streak' her to ignore theseaspectsof Tye's character(p.82). encourages

261 As with other characters,Jane's anxiety is manifest through sound. This sound takes the form of 'moaning' which is read positively by the communal in unity the house;Mrs. Wire views it as a soundof pleasure.In fact, it is the sound her in Tye, break. For entrapment of with out of which she cannot example, Scene Nine she decides to rid herself of him, requesting him to move out with his belongings. However, by the end of the scene she surrendersto his hypnosis of comfort by 'sobbing on the bed'. This comfort doesnot only operateas sound,but also in visual symbols. Beret, the cat, symbolises the unseen comforting presenceto which Tye resorts whenever the action between him and Jane becomes heated. For example, whenever Janethreatensto walk away from him, he calls Beret. By the end of the play Beret is serving Janethe sameway, when she feels that Tye really has walked away and will not be back, after she discovers that her fatal blood diseaseis no longer in remission. She tries to 'spare him the unpleasantness of her decline', and he leavesunawareof the 'nature of her illness [suspectingpregnancy], planning to return from work early to rouse her saggingspirits' (Simard p.3). Thus, she resortsto Beret as a symbolic comfort. Unlike human beings, cats can 'go away

and comeback and- you don't haveto worry aboutthem' (p.104).Janerealises

that if Tye goes away he will not come back. Thus she seeks comfort through holding Beret after her fight with Tye in SceneTwelve. She realisesthat 'nothing existed' for him except his self-absorbed 'image in the mirror'; he has become 'invalid, of no use, financial or sexual' (p. I 10). Tye does not provide Janewith the light of life and salvation. This is

embodied by the constant darknessin their room and her own physical deterioration. Tye is contentwith the darkness, in which thereis for him a clarity

262 in he find lighted areas.In SceneEleven he recognisesthat Jane's cannot which 4gottensort of - skinny', which he had not recognisedduring the day in spite of her her from deterioration Meanwhile, Jane's constant complaints. results partly inability to recogniseherself. Shefeels that shehas beendegradedfrom a 'Northern fact lady' into defends 'fallen' (p. 96). She the of a a equivalent whore repeatedly that she is not a whore, but in the samesceneshe is ironically namedby the tourists into the gallery: 'there's a whore at the gallery staggers she naked out when window! Practically naked' (p.99: my emphasis). Realising her decline into the position of a 'fallen' lady, Janedecides to withdraw from Tye's life. However, instead of moving away from the studio or the house that stands for their unity, she spatially 'withdraws into another dimension' (p. 110). This is embodied by her repeatedly looking through the describes it She the at scene outside. as a: window sky that's visible to her from her bed under the skylight - at night, these Vieux filmy drift they they the clouds, of white move, over roofs Carr6 so close that if you have fever you feel as if you could touch them, and bits would come off on your fingers, soft as - cotton candy

(p.111).
Her words highlight the concept of 'sky' as a symbol of liberation. It is her way to 79 Jane be elevated from the room 'that smells, that reeks of marijuana' (p. 105). helplessly tries throughout the play to free herself spatially from her room, and the window when she feels confined. She tells Tye to open the shutters, approaches

breathe in 'clean hopes die, the to can air' she which she so andthe windowswith
79Shannonin the three-actversion of IZuana achievesthe samenumbing peacethrough drinking the rum-coco and opium tea.

263 their shuttersportray a releaseof freedom from the confinement of the room (p.99). In SceneEleven, to the gallery 'with its closed shutters,moving from one piece of furniture to another for support. Now she opensthe shutter doors and staggersout onto the gallery' (p.99). Her bodily staggering parallels her degradation; and she

decline. hold in from her be liberated to to something needs onto order

At the end of the play Jane'staggersto the window; shattersa pane of glass; and shouts' (p. 115). By shouting, she projects through soundher anxiety that image Jane be by language. Vieux Carrd the of verbalised with cannot ends 'absorbedin her solitary chessgame' which symbolisesher loneliness(P.115). She flight Tye's footsteps, 'picked through the second realises which up speed on down-startedwhistling that he has walked away (p. 114). Tye's whistling then
80

by for his is liberation from the a sound paralleled stands of release, room, which his spatial movementon the secondflight down. Beret is visible for the first time in this scene.Described as 'white and fluffy as a piece of cloud', a parallel is suggested betweenthe cat and Jane'svision by is found her light (p. 115). It However, the the source of and sky elevation. of Writer when he went down the secondflight 'on the cot in the dark passage way', Beret has desertedJane,symbolising Jane's failure to achievethe way to her vision

liberation by (p. 115). So the endof the play, the sky as a means of salvation and of left alone without her comfort, Jane surrenders to her confinement.This is
her' behind hand by her leaning her bleeding 'against the wall, panting, visualised after she 'shattersa paneof glass' (p. 115).

so This action recalls Blanche in Streetcar,who uses her voice in order to project her own selfentrapmenton others and on the exterior spacearound her.

264 Although Jane's and Tye's relationship has no grandeur, and its gaudinessexposesno depth of characterization,they display a tangible example of the deterioratedunity that helps to achieve the Writer's enlightemnent.The Writer

would have been like Jane, had he not desertedthe communal unity and
compromised his compassion. Unlike Jane, however, he achieves a spatial and metaphorical elevation above the lower area and towards the liberating vision of Sky. This is not only realised by his following Sky to the West Coast, but also he literally free from the confinement of his memory, which has constituted a up ends

fluctuatingbarrierbetween him andhis freedom. his liberation Theplay dramatises

from his memory's confinement within the past. This liberation operatesby shifting from the shadowy side of his memory into its lighter side, pushing these people into the spotlight of his memory. By the end of the play he liberateshimself people in house 'empty beginning 'it the the the sees and now', while at of play was alive' his recollection. Gradually, by entering the 'lighter areas' of his memory, the disappear if behind him, becoming 'shadowy to start characters occupants', as the 'earth seemsto swallow them up; the walls absorb them like moisture' (p. 116). They remain with him 'only as ghosts; their voices are echoes, fading but

(p.116). remembered'
This is presentedat the end of the play in the 'cacophony of sound' and the 'urgent call of the clarinet' (p. 116). The 'cacophony' includes the 'waiting storm of his future - mechanical racking cries of pain and pleasure, snatchesof fades song', which out to be replacedby the secondsound of the clarinet (p. 116). The clarinet that takes the form of an urgent calling belongs to Sky, and the sound

makesthe Writer turn at the door for a while until he uttersthe final wordsof the
is home 'this now empty' (p.l. 16). Here the door standsfor a symbolic spatial play:

265 departure between lighted fluctuating in his two the areaof spaces areaof memory: the house (the communal unity in the house) and the darkenedarea of his future (the way to the skylight). It is dark, and he is 'frightened of it', and it is a 'desperate he is door heading into (p. This 116). to the this as open visualised undertaking' area is 'forced back a few steps' until he 'crossesto the open door' (p. 116). By crossing in moving away from the communal unity into the world of the door he succeeds liberation. and adventures Not until he realisesthis stageof maturation doesthe Writer leave the from follow light is foreshadowed Sky. This the very to the of communal unity beginning, as the Writer 'shoulders the sack and mounts a stepor two to the kitchen level' while the name on the sack 'shines like a prediction' (p.8). This prediction comes true when the Writer decides to leave with the musician, Sky, and head to in going beyond the spaceunderneath the West Coast.By this decision he succeeds the 'in-between area' of liberation within which the communal unity of the house in by discussed is This the reference earlier. verbally symbolised are confined, as his final words in the play to the two stagesof childhood and adulthood. He passes the first stageby growing up from a child into 'a man, about to take his first step his into (p. 107). The 'waiting the station' refers to the of waiting station world' out houseand its people and memoriesthat confine him. Moving on from this houseis the first step in his liberation, and leaving this 'waiting station' the Writer finds a degreeof maturity. In Part One, we see the Writer in a stage of childhood. Mrs. Wire her him him her Timmy, and as a surrogate son and associates own son adopts with Writer's for fulfilment the the own of qualities protection are pivotal of motherly familial needs during his time in the house. During this stage, he stumbles with

266 incomplete Moreover, silence. sentences with ellipses and sometimes words; using others refer to him as a 'kid', 'too young', and a 'boy'. He objectsto Nightingale's intrusion into he his knocking', 'without surrendersto cubicle until constantspatial his homosexual advances(p.48). However, he undergoesa remarkable change at the beginning of Part Two; he moves from innocence to hardened experience, probably as a result of his intimate contact with Nightingale. He achievesa new after only three weeks. Mrs. Wire notices a 'shift from the gentlemanly coarseness innocence' he once had and, by the end of the play, he shows little human becomecruel as the play progresses, and compassion.Even his condensedspeeches his purpose seemsto be a destroyer of the characters' evasions,rather than a point of compassion. He starts to develop a different language, longer and more complete,without pauses. He adopts a different attitude towards the parental approach of Mrs. Wire, confronting her and saying that he is 'nobody's child. Was maybe, but not from his imply his (p. 107). His childish words maturity, and movementaway now' dependencyon Mrs. Wire's ensnaring love. He even projects this maturity onto others, for example in SceneFive he confronts Nightingale with the reality about his TB condition in a hard and quick voice that contrastswith Nightingale's voice fear: and of uncertainty I think there has been some deterioration in your condition and you ought to face it! A man has got to face everything sometime and call it by its true name, not to try to escapeit by - cowardly! - evasion -

go haveyour lungsx-rayedanddon't receivethe doctor'sbill whenit's

sentl But go there quick, have the disease stated clearly (p.51: my emphasis).

267 His words distinguish between evasion and facing everything by referring to it by its true name. Here the Writer plays the role of a force of comfort for Nightingale.

Nightingaleand'assists He catches him backto his cot' in orderto lie down(p.90).

The very action of lying him down and placing 'the pillows gently' under his back his attempt to comfort him (p.91). He uses special mechanisms to visualises comfort him: 'pills for sleep', and blowing the candle out to make him 'feel a comforting presence',which Nightingale finally achievesby his death in SceneTen (p.93).

The Writer progresses with a rapidity that some critics, such as Simard, misreadas lack of 'believability' (Simard, p.2). However, according to my reading, this is a techniqueof Williams to have the Writer servethe narration of the other characters'confinement, until he is developedinto a liberating symbol rather than being a real dramatic characterhimself Williams presentsthrough the Writer a case study of a character that succeedsin moving beyond the margin towards liberation. However, this does not imply that liberation lies at a specific " Rather, it is within the very act of destination. moving. In other words, unlike Williams' other characters (Blanche, Laura, Shannon, Myrtle, Miriam and the bar), in his interior Monk's Writer liberating the of succeeds space community (which standsfor the fluctuating spaceof his memory) from its ties to the exterior his (including past, and his communal unity with others). This liberation space him from the experienceof marginality; here liberation is a fluctuating away pushes
81 The West Coast was associatedwith the counter-culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to written statementsand a number of Tennessee Williams' published letters, Williams' attitude to the West Coastwas close to that of the Writer. In one of his letters to his mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, in 1939 from San Antonio, Texas, he refers to his journey to the West Coast with Jim Parrott, a musician similar to Sky. He offered to drive Williams free of charge as he had been promised work in Hollywood and he thought he could get Williams 'some scenariowork there in the studios' (Devlin and Tischler, 2000, p. 148). Williams seemedto be inspired by his trip to the West Coast,and referencing its cultural life, with Sky beckoning the Writer towards a creative place of liberation. Given that Vieux Carr6 was published in 1977, however, it is retrospectivein its view of the West Coastcounter-culturewhich, arguably, had lost its force by the early 1970s.

268 spacethat lies within the Writer's interiority, which helps him to look back in time and to observehis interactions. Jack Barbera in 'Strangers in the Night: Three Interior Dramatic Monologuesby Tennessee Williams' (1999) arguesthat: Williams' interior dramatic monologues allow the reader to see the speaker's self seeing itself ... the interior dramatic monologues encouragethe readerto consider the speaker's situation and limitations of perspective,facilitating an understandingon the part of the reader of a different and perhapsmore encompassing perspectivethan that of the speaker(Barbera,p.77). According to my argument, the Writer functions as an "observing ego', through interior dramatic monologue we are allowed to see the character's self whose his himself. This by Williams, the end of career, raisesquestionsof whether seeing had moved beyond an exploration of the concept of marginality towards dramatising a turn back to the self as the sourceof salvation and liberation. According to such a view, it is through the self that Williams' loving God is made possible. However, this is not the confined, destructive, rejected self, 82 but is rather the self that or the abnegatedself, ready to move. Through the

Writer, Williams dramatises this movement of the self, awayfrom the confinement andthe fear of 'not knowingwhat isn't meantto be known' (Williams' The Milk
Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963), as quoted in Adler, 1973, p.53) 83So, .

82This is a referenceto Williams' earlier characters who are entrappedwith their selvesas discussed in the first chapterof the thesis. 83This is taken from Milktrain where Christopher Flanders,the Angel of Death, tells Sissy that she does not suffer from a 'malady of the body but from an emptinessof the spirit that no physical love can assuage'(seeAdler 1973, p.53).

269
the Writer follows Sky to the unknown, and all he is expecting is to exist and survive. He acceptsa life like that of a fugitive, on the road with Sky, by exercising his wits and his 'personal charm' in order to experience the 'wide open spaces betweenhere and the coast' (The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 8, p.78). Within these spaces, the Writer is elevatedaway from Mrs. Wire's rooming house that remains 'below the sea level'. The Coast representsa spatial areaof openness, that can elevatethe Writer up to the sealevel. Here Sky adventureand rootlessness

for 'a ticket represents out of a situation which the Writer no longer has use'
(Simard p.5). According to my argument, Sky will help him to discover his 'true nature', which is the 'instinct' which the charactersof Menaizeriestrive to avoid in order to maintain their illusory unity within the Wingfields' apartment: instinct, it must have been directed me here, to the Vieux Carr6 of ... New Orleans, down country as a- river flows no plan. I couldn't have consciously, deliberately, selecteda better place than here to discover to encounter - my true nature (The Theatrg of TennesseeWilliams, Volume 8, p.69: my emphasis). in the play coincides with thesewords, presentinghim Thus, Sky's first appearance as a saviour who will rescuethe Writer moved 'down' the country like a river does. This positions Sky as a symbolic vision of what the loving God stands for. By following him, the Writer is following the light which Sky represents,towards the

God. abstract

270 This reading of Vieux Carr6 helps to draw this thesis to a close, suggesting a radical change of perspective in Williams' later plays, while also sharing lines of continuity with his earlier work. The thesis has examined the development of the minority concept, from the identity of a certain group in the 1940sand 1950sinto a broader experienceof marginality by the end of 1960sand 1970s. It has focused on reading Williams' dramatic texts in relation to their stagecraft,including reading the visual and aural images, the stage directions and the characters'body languageand movementson the stage,as well as their spoken words. Williams' theatricality and stagecraft are used to shift this concept from a simple philosophical or sociological meaning to one expressing real human Williams moves away from the plastic theatre and realism of his early experiences. plays, to use certain visual techniques in Iguan that externalise and project the confinement of the charactersonto the stageitself. In his early plays up to the end of the 1950s, charactersincluding Laura in The GlassMenagerie,Blanche in A StreetcarNamed Desire and Catharine in Suddenly Last Summer are categorisedas identifiable minorities. In Williams' early plays there is a focus on the self within which the charactersare entrapped;

this self is defined in ChapterTwo, with its readingof Iguan , as 'the interior
space', which is later witnessed as a conflict existing between the 'interior space' and its opposite the 'exterior space'. In Last Summer, the charactersstart to move from the self by projecting their self-entrapment onto the exterior space, symbolisedby the liberation of Catharine's vision of the truth of Sebastian'sdeath by the end of the play.

Towardsthe end of his careerWilliams movedtowardsdramatising

the experienceof marginality itself, in such plays as Kingdom of Earth, In the Bar

271 Small Craft Warnings. In To4o Hotel, theseplays the conceptof minority and of a is developedin more metaphorical ways, as an experienceof complex marginality in relation to a small group of charactersthat are alienated from their social world has from degrees Here the of anxiety. concept of marginality suffering varying and become more abstract, concerning the characters' interaction with one another to create their own spaceof liberation. This place is referred to in Chapter Three as 'the circle of 'one-ness'. The use of the word 'circle' signifies the circularity of the marginality experiencedin these plays, where the charactersresort to projecting their anxieties onto one another and have no choice but to continue within this endlesscircle of anxiety and entrapment. In these plays this circle takes the form of the mental fluctuating spacethat is created between two marginalized characters,who come together in order to be liberated from their own self inflicted prison. Gradually this learn include is to that two to or more characters re-created and widened circle in level: other words, a group of people work together to on a collective operate

discussed in Small Craft. The individual's to relation as confinement, preventan

discussion of Vieux Carrd reveals Williams moving beyond the experience of God, by dramatising the as well as a return to the self as the unity with marginality sourceof salvation and liberation. Vieux Carr6 marks a major turning point in the representationof the idea of God, which plays a significant role in the dynamics and development of issuesof minority and marginality in Williams' work. As discussedthroughout the thesis, the presenceof the father figure is given priority in Williams' plays, and the

from a personifiedimageof God in imageof the patriarchalfather is developed

Williams' early plays into a more abstract image in the later works. The absent

272 Godlike father abandonsWilliams' earlier charactersand contributes to their selfentrapment, such as the personified image of the Godlike father figure of Mr. Wingfield in Menagerie.In Williams' later plays the unity with an abstractGod is suggestedas a step towards liberation, as described in the discussion of Vieux Carrd. With its three developmentaldrafts, Williams' 1961 play The Night of the Iguana.is a pivotal text in his portrayal of minorities; these drafts signal Williams' transitional phase regarding the use of language, space and charactersto convey issues. minority

The main objective of the thesis has beento demonstrate that, in Williams' drama, the way towards liberation lies within the self. With this on the self, it is plausibleto relate Williams' vision of liberation to emphasis contemporary society.Williams' vision encourages effectivecommunication, and dialogue. be It in the dramatic will also sustained significantto pursuethis concept
work of Williams' contemporaries. This thesis therefore proposes a new framework for the study of Williams' dramatic work. Williams presents the concept of liberation as a developing process of freeing the self from self-obsession.This is illustrated in Williams' texts by the self-entrapment which stems from the fear of rejection. Williams' intention is to call for liberation from the self: not in a space of pure freedom but in negotiation with others. TennesseeWilliams is unrivalled in his daring attempt to challenge the statusquo through his dramatic texts. He achievesthis, not by aligning himself within certain schools or movements, but by questioning and transcending the dominant social ideasto explore universal topics such as selfhood, self-entrapment,

273 liberation and anxiety. By exploring these topics Williams enableshis minorities and marginalized charactersto exist on his stage.

274

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A StreetcarNamed Desire. Dir. Kazan, Elia. DVD. CharlesK. Feldman Group, Wamer Bros. Pictures. I December 1951.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Dir. Brooks, Richard. DVD. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). 20 September1958.

The GlassMenagerie.Dir. Harvey, Anthony. DVD. Norton Simon Inc. 16 December 1973.

The Night of the Iguan Dir. Huston, John. DVD. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). . 6 August 1964.

Suddenly.Last Summer.Dir. Mankiewicz, JosephL. DVD. Columbia Pictures. 22 December 1959.